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HIDDEN MYSTERY UNRAVELLED 



OR 



SCIENCE, Sense and Scripture 



HARMONIZ 



By Charles W- Smith. 




''They received the word with all readiness 
of mind, and searched the scripttires daily if 
those things were so.'' — Acts ij :ii. 



Guthrie, Oklahoma: 

The State Capit/al Printing Co., Printers. 

1891. 



^-R'*- 
^(.6% 



COPYRKiHT 189I 
BY 

CHAS. W. SMITH. 
GUTHRIR, Ok. 



PREFACE. 



Intelligent and observing- men plainly see 
that a reform in religious thought is imperatively 
demanded. As the world changes in all other 
respects, so it changes in the matter of its relig- 
ious convictions. The more advanced and 
enlightened the people the more refined and 
beautiful are their conceptions in all that relates 
to the Supreme Being and the future state of 
man. Many of the creeds to which the sects of 
Christendom still cling are found to be retro- 
gressive in their teachings. They smell of the 
must of the Dark Ages. They are known to be 
against the spirit of the age, and at variance 
with the plain teachings of the Book of Books. 
For this reason "men are running to and fro," 
pushing their investigations and greatly increas- 
ing their knowledge in this and other depart- 
ments. The desire to know more of God and 
His will concerning us is causing men to publish 
the products of their researches. 

It is not claimed for this little volume that 
it is an exhaustive discussion of the subject in 



hand, but it is claimed that he who gives this a 
careful reading will find in it a clear and satis- 
factory solution of many questions that till now 
have been "hidden mysteries." The book is 
given to you for your profit, and with the prayer 
that God will open your minds to the truths 
herein set forth. 

C. W. S. 
Guthrie, July, 1891. 



Most fortunate and happy brother, you can 
scarcely conceive the exquisite pleasure it gives 
me to meet you here in our exalted and glo- 
rious haven of blissful rest and endless joy. 
Oh! how inexpressibly happy, with what un- 
speakable ecstacy I greet your joyous coming. 
But I shall not attempt to tell you of the bound- 
less pleasure we experience on meeting one of 
Earth's redeemed in our own celestial home. 
Nor shall I hope to hear you e'xpress your 
own great happiness on reaching, victoriously, 
the home of the rescued, of the redeemed and 
the saved of your gracious and blessed Lord 
and Savior. And now please accept my most 
hearty congratulations on the glorious achieve- 
men«t of your gracious Lord in calling you from 
the paths of sin and exalting you to the throne 
of glory. O, my fortunate Lord did you but 
know the glorious future before you, your 
mighty soul could not contain its boundless 
bliss. 

Ah! my angelic friend, how little can a 
new-born spirit, just entering upon the bliss of 



Heaven, realize the rapturous joy his future 
holds in store for him. But I am inexpressibly 
happy. My highest earthly conception of 
Heaven's boundles bliss was as naught to the 
reality. 

Thus I heard this august angelic being 
commune with one of Earth's redeemed soon 
after its arrival in the etherial home of the 
blest. Then with rapt attention I listened, but 
can record only the salient features of their an- 
gelic converse. 

Ah! but thou, so recently from Earth, 
how oft have I looked with longing eye upon 
that waywa^-d and wandering orb, and asked 
myself again and again how long, oh, how long 
will Earth's denizens grovel in darkness and re- 
fuse to see the glorious light shining from the 
countenance of their loving Savior.^* But then, we 
know, of course, that when the Father's own 
good time shall come, the light of life shall shed 
its refulgent splendor o'er all Earth's hills and 
vales, and all the Earth, redeemed of the Lord, 
and saved, shall come up a mighty host to 
praise the Lord in ecstacy for the mighty sal- 
vation which He will have wrought among the 
children of men. 

Oh! how good is our God; how gracious 
is His adorable son. How much to be loved, 
how much to be reverenced, adored and prais- 



ed, for the greatness of their boundless good- 
ness to the children of men. 

"Praise the Lord, O, my soul!" Exalt His 
holy name, adore Him all ye sons of men; for 
He is worthy of all adoration. How do I re- 
joice and magnify my happiness as I behold all 
the grandeur and glory of this blissful abode. 
But come, my dear angelic teacher, pray tell 
me all about Earth's mysteries. How came its 
condition thus.? Dost thou know whence it 
was, and how it hath in sin become so deeply 
involved.? Ah! well I remember when the plan- 
et, we now call Earth, was a great glowing, lu- 
minous ball, as the sun to the Earth now is, 
and I have watched its long and dreary pro- 
gress ever since, to see what the Father's holy 
purposes might be with reference to it. And I 
shall be but too happy to recount to you some 
of its strange experiences and to compare them 
with the story of inspiration. And thus you 
will see how very readily doth mankind accept 
error for truth, with what astonishing per- 
tinacity they defend the wrong, how un- 
willingly they accept the truth 54id how far their 
great teachers have come short of a correct un- 
derstanding of the words of inspiration. And 
thus with me thou canst not help but wonder 
that things are as they are, and thou must say 
as I have ever said, "The ways of the Lord ara 



past finding out;" but all His ways are right, and 
his efforts are crowned with imperial success. 
And yet, while His works are progressing and 
unfinished, astounding mysteries doth appear, 
and ages pass by, then, out of the chaos 
comes astounding and glorious achievements 
which doth most highly exalt His great and 
holy name. Dost thou behold that nebulous 
body in the distant space so far away? 

I do, my beloved, I do! 

When first I saw the Earth, thus it looked 
and stranger still it grew. I watched it 
while ages passed, and it thicker grew, 
and gases formed, and breaking forth in fiery 
flames, it burned as a glowing furnace, while 
down through illimitable space it fell. And 
then I looked again, when long ages had passed 
away, its burning fires had ceased, and it 
burned no more; but a dark and gloomy body, 
it rolled on through space hardening on its 
surface and forming itself into a round and solid 
globe. And then I saw again that great erup- 
tions occurred upon its surface, and vast volumes 
of flames burst forth; and again, the Earth was 
as a sun, but on its face appeared large spots 
of solid surface where no^ fire burned. Spots 
such as are now seen upon the sun's bright disc, 
so that the Earth was then much like the^Earth's 
sun is now. And the time of myriads of years 



5 

rolled by, and then the Earth was as a sun no 
more. But again its fires ceased to burn, **and 
darkness covered the face of the deep," and 
thus, at intervals immensely long, one change 
succeeded another, until the thirteenth change 
had come, when the earth fully, fitted for human 
habitation, revolved in its present orbit around 
the sun, and man was seen upon its face. But, 
l^erhaps, you wonder how this recital can be 
made to agree with the story of bible inspira- 
tion as told in the book of Genesis. But a 
little impartial examination will show that this 
account and that of the bible are both the same, 
except that they are expressed in different 
words. Let us see. Inspiration sought to im- 
part an immensity of information in a very few 
words, and it must be admitted that volumes 
might be written without securing more fully 
the object. And now, I will tell you why so 
many critics, quibblers and skeptics, have 
Isought to refute the bible and, coming in 
conflict with religious error, bigotry and intol- 
erance, have fertilized the earth with human 
blood. This was a necessary and inevitable re- 
fining process through which the human race 
must pass in its developement; from it there was 
no escape. But when the grand and glorious 
future of that race, in its perfected state, is 
comprehended, it will be seen how immensely is 



the means justified by the end. But these 
disputations arose mainly from the fact that the 
religious world has always misunderstood inspi- 
ration and have given to it many impossible 
meanings which they have accepted without 
pretending to understand. But, believing that 
the word taught THEM, they felt bound to ac- 
cept them under pain of punishment for unbe- 
lief if they failed to believe them. And, feeling 
that there was no other sin so great as unbelief, 
they sought to compel all to receive and conform 
to their teachings. Ruinous absurdity, from 
Avhich the earth is now but just emerging. 

Think how great, how astonishingly great, 
must be the vanity, the egotism, nay the lunacy 
that assumes to know the mind of God, and to 
lay down a creed to which others must sub- 
scribe. Are these people infinite in wisdom, 
infallable in theory that they assume to tell 
others what they must believe.-^ Preposterous! 
preposterous! ! "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, 
saith the Lord." Let no man assume this func- 
tion of the Great Jehovah's, nor attempt to in- 
flict vengeance where God himself hath not 
deigned to interfere. Nay, leave the matter of 
vengeance with God. If it is to be exercised, 
he will know just when and how justly to apply 
it. Man's function is to reason calmly and 
think earnestly and pray fervently that he may 



gain Just so much of truth as will make him hap- 
piest on earth, and best fit him for God's own 
purposes with him hereafter. But he must not 
interfere with his fellowman in his efforts to 
secure a like good, nor must he suppose that the 
same knowledge or the same truths must be pos- 
sessed alike by both, or by all, or that that, which 
is necessary for one, is even desirable for the 
other. And yet, while each must labor to help 
the other, according to his greatest knowledge 
and ability, he must not attempt by force to 
restrain or control. All this must be left to God. 
Such is the condition into which the race must 
be brought through the fires of contention. 
''Offenses must needs come", but woe to those 
engaged in them, for they bring their own 
dreadful consequences. But they produce 
their refining effects, and so the race moves on. 
The great difficulty in understanding the bible 
has arisen from the fact that every theological 
system has been founded on fundamental error, 
and the deductions from these false premises 
could not fail to be erroneous and conflicting. 
But before returning to my answer to your 
questions, I wish to impress your mind with this 
great truth, that there are no truths outside of 
nature. And that truth is the only quality or 
property in nature possessing a single elemevA oj 
value. While error is utterly worthless, and is 



destructive of value just in proportion to the 
amount of it in any thing or theory, truth is ab- 
solute value. Thus, while truth is value, error 
is the absence of value. And everything is good 
or bad, valuable or valueless, in the ratio of its 
truth to its error. Hence, seek the truth, be 
sure you get it, and be satisfied with nothing 
else. But do not be so sure you have it as 
to refuse to seek further. Do not take it on 
anybody's authority, but prove it from nature. 
The labor of seeking will be of great value to 
you. To resume my answers to your ques- 
tions: The second period of darkness was 
ended in a manner similar to the first, except 
that the Earth's surface had become much thicker 
and harder, and the water of the ocean had 
largely] formed and naturally collected in the 
lower places. But its crust was not sufficiently 
hard to prevent its internal gasses from burst- 
ing forth in mighty flames in many places. 
But before these gases had broken through, 
the Earth's crust had been pushed out and 
shoved up into great irregularities, forming what 
are now called mountain ranges. The vast flames 
of fire both warmed and lighted the solid 
ground which, at distances great enough from 
the source of heat, brought forth, first the simple 
kinds of vegetation, as grass and herbs, and 
finally, as the fires died out, the accumulated 



quantities of gases in the Earth having been 
exhausted largely, and the Earth's crust cooled 
off, shrubs and trees appeared and then the fires 
became so nearly extinct that the Earth was 
again in darkness. Its crust continued to 
harden, but its internal heat continued to pro- 
duce internal gases, and these again burst forth 
in flames, in fewer places and burned with less 
violence until they were growing extinct; when 
the Earth was arrested in its aimless fall by 
the attraction of the sun, which now, for the 
first time, appeared to illuminate the rapidly 
darkening Earth. While myriad ages rolled on 
the Earth floated in space, being drawn hither 
and thither by the attraction of different bodies, 
till the sun, as it were, lost its hold on it, and it 
passed again into darkness, rolling on through 
space. But having assumed a kind of elliptical 
orbit, it was again brought into the light of the 
sun, under whose influence its orbit was greatly 
modified and largely reduced in extent. While 
the Earth's crust had greatly hardened, yet there 
were very many volcanic fires, but these were 
greatly diminished in extent and power, and 
allowed vegetation to perfect itself, while the 
sea produced great varieties and vast quantities 
of piscatorial life. The fowls of the air 
flourished, and builded their nests in the abun- 
dant foliage. Thus, for a period much shorter 



lO 



than some that had gone before, the Earth's fifth 
age of light was terminated by its drifting too 
far from the sun to receive its light. But this 
period of darkness was of much shorter dura- 
tion than others before it, and then it came 
again into the sun's light and much more nearly 
into its present orbit, and during this period of 
light great varieties of animals, adapted to its 
then condition, were brought into existence, 
and man, a crude and peculiar being, was de- 
veloped; not the man you see on the earth now, 
but differing from him in many particulars 
and gradually developing into a greater intelli- 
gence. And then, again, for a very short time 
the Earth sped away into darkness, but soon 
was drawn back again into the sun's light and 
gradually came into its present orbit. The 
other great etherial bodies also, having gotten 
into their present orbits, the universe was now 
fitted up for man's more perfect developement. 
And then God, through angelic agency, selected 
one who has been called Adam, and fitting him 
out from the race of men then on the Earth, he 
made him the first son of God, and perfected for 
him a helpmeet from whom it was designed to 
develop a race of men immeasurably htgher in 
the scale of existence than were any before. 

But, Adam failed to maintain the exalted 
position to which he had been assigned. For 



II 



God had deigned to give to him the wonderful 
property of life on one condition only, and with 
it the power to transmit that life to his posterity. 
But, before Adam had any son or child, he had 
broken the condition upon which this life de- 
pended, and had lost this property. This prop- 
erty of life here spoken of is the power to live 
from earth into heaven without death, or to de- 
velop an immortality without dying. Thus, if 
Adam had not fallen he would, when he had at- 
tained the natural age, have changed into an 
angel without death, and this property, if it had 
not been lost, would have been, inherited by his 
children. But being lost before he had children 
it could not go to them, so "in Adam all died." 
But in Christ all shall be made alive. So when 
his first son was born this property of life was 
not transmitted to him, because it was not then 
in the possession of his father, and so the race 
of the sons of God had fallen again to the level 
of men. Then began the work of their re- 
creation which I will fully explain at a future 
time in the order of its occurrence. But now I 
wish to see what inspiration says of the creation 
and learn whether its account does, or does not, 
differ from the events as I observed them and 
as I have briefly given them to you. The 
scriptures say, "In the beginning God created 
the Heavens and the Earth." The Heavens, a 



12 



place to pu! worlds must first be made, and 
then we are told the Earth was begun, for God 
speaks of things begun as though they were fin- 
ished. The Earth was without form and void, 
being, as I have observed, a vast fluid, body, light 
and floating like a great cloud, changing its 
form continually as the process of concentra- 
tion went on. Without form, having no fixed 
form. Void, without occupants and without 
the possibility of an occupant, such, exact- 
ly, as I saw it. There was as yet no light 
within it. But when it had become suffi- 
ciently dense, God said, ''Let there be light," 
and the whole became a mighty ball of fire, 
"and there was light." And God called the 
light day. But there is nothing in holy writ to 
indicate the duration of this day, but so long as 
the light lasted the day continued, and, as I have 
told you, this day was of immense duration, and 
was followed by a long period of darkness which 
' 'God called night." But as of the day, the scrip- 
ture does not hint at the length of the night, nor 
indeed, could it, for there was no standard of 
comparison by which to measure its length, nor 
was there any reason why such an attempt 
should be made. It is sufficient to know that 
whatever length the light was, it was day, and 
of whatever length the darknes, it was night. 
But it is perfectly certain from the scripture ac- 



13 

count that they were not days of twenty-four 
hours each, as has been supposed by those liv- 
ing in days and nights of that length; for the 
Earth's present day is caused by its side being 
turned towards the sun. Its night is caused 
by its side turned away from the sun, being 
in its own shadow, and thus darkened by 
theshadow. But, if there were no sun, th en 
this could not happen, and the Earth would be 
in perpetual night, unless lighted by some other 
means. But the scripture informs you that the 
morning and the evening were the first day, 
thus including night and day both in the day, 
not careful to adhere strictly to the first defini- 
tion of day and night; but to leave you to under- 
stand that a most liberal construction is to be 
given to this very brief and general account, 
which has for its object something of vastly 
more importance than strict accuracy of detail. 
We are then told that certain transformations 
took place, and the evening and the morning 
was the second day. And then followed the 
third day, during which other changes occurred, 
and even the cruder forms of vegetation began 
to appear. But the third day and the third 
night had passed away. Thus six long eras 
of the earth's existence were wholly gone, and 
the seventh, called the fourth day, was nearing 



14 

its close; and yet no sun, moon nor stars had 
been made to appear. 

But, how did three days and three nights 
pass by ? How did they exist without a sun ? 
If they were such days as prevail on the Earth 
now they could not exist without a sun. They 
did exist, and there was no sun, so they 
were not such days as men behold at this time. 
The inspired word doth certainly agree thus far 
with my observation, ''And God said, Let the 
water bring forth abundantly the moving crea- 
tures that have life ; and fowl that may fly above 
the Earth in the open firmanent of heaven. And 
God created great whales and every living 
creature that moveth, which the water brought 
forth abundantly after their kind, and every 
winged fowl after his kind. And the evening 
and the morning were the fifth day." Here we 
are informed that during the fifth day all man- 
ner of fish and fowl came into existence and were 
propogated and multiplied and increased in 
numbers till the waters and the air were thick- 
ly inhabited by them. Let no one suppose 
that all this would occur in twenty-four hours. 
But on the supposition that these creations were 
instantaneous and miraculous, it might be thought 
that God would have made one pair of each dif- 
ferent species, and that in after years they would 
have become numerous. But certainly, not all 



in one day, unless God had made myriads of dif- 
ferent pairs of the same variety, which is absurd; 
but God did provide one pair of each and from 
this pair sprang myriads of its kind, all in one 
scriptural day, by the regular process of na- 
ture ; which shows that that day must have 
been one of immense duration, and not sim- 
ply twenty-four hours long. Again, on the 
sixth day all kinds of animals were develop- 
ed, and thickly covered the earth ; and, at last, 
God made man, having first fully prepared the 
earth to receive him. Now, it will be noticed 
that great forests of trees grew and flourished 
and died in one scriptural day ; that all manner 
of fish and fowls, innumerable, lived and died in 
another scriptural day, and animals of every 
species filled the Earth in another scriptural day. 
That the sun did not exist until the fourth day ; 
thus making the Earth much older than the sun. 
Well, I believe that is about right, as my mem- 
ory tells' me it is as I saw it. But the last of 
God's creation was man : not the individual 
Adam, for his existence prevailed in, or marked 
the beginning of, the seventh day, and was the 
great distinguishing feature that ushered it in. 
Adam's life was spent in the seventh day, "and 
God rested on the seventh day from all his work 
which he had made, and blessed the seventh 
day and sanctified it, because in it he had rest- 



I6 



ed:" not because during or through it he had 
rested, for he did not rest in it till Christ, the 
Lord, relieved him of his work and took charge 
of the affairs of Earth after his resurection, when 
he said, ''All power in heaven and Earth is given 
unto me." Does any one suppose that God left 
the Earth utterly without attention from Adam 
to Christ ? If anything was done during that 
time, if God did not do it, who did ? Thus by 
the Earth's received chronology, four thousand 
years of the seventh day had passed before God 
rested, and that seventh day will continue till, 
through Christ, the mighty blessing of God with 
which he blessed that seventh day shall prevail 
over all the Earth in a perfect race of perfect 
men The creation of man is not shown to have 
been instantaneous as has been supposed; nor 
is Adam shown to have been the first of Earth's 
intelligent inhabitants, no more than Christ is 
shown to have bten the second intelligent in- 
habitant of the Earth. Nor are we to feel that 
Adam was any more a special creation that 
Christ was. Of the two, Christ would seem to 
have been very much the more important crea- 
tion. But history is very explicit and literal in 
telling how Christ came into the world. It may 
be explicit in a certain sense in telling how 
Adam came; but it is extremely figurative, its 



17 

cfesign being to prefigure the history of man- 
kind on the Earth, by detailing the events in the 
life of its first perfect progenitor, rather than to 
give an accurate account of his origin. Again, 
the story must be told in language that could 
be understood, and must be confined to the 
limited space that could be made available for it. 
So when it is said that God formed man out of 
the ground, a fact is affirmed that your every 
day's observation demonstrates to be true. If 
God did not form man, who did? If he were 
not produced from the ground, what was he 
made out oU Do not now suppose that God, 
like a child, mixed up some earth and water 
and instantly turned it into a man and called 
him Adam. There is no sucli teaching as that, 
and you can just as well understand the writer 
as meaning what did happen, as to understand 
him to mean what did not happen, and then af- 
firm that he does not tell the truth. Human 
perversity readily perverts truth into falsehood 
and ever more readily converts falsehood into 
what they accept as truth, greatly to their own 
injury. But God's purposes are not defeated by 
it. It only makes the refining process necessa- 
rily so much the more severe. For error must 
be destroyed ''even so as by fire." ''And God 
said, let us make man, [not a man,] in Our 
image, after Our likeness." Man had been made 



i8 



before in animal form, but not in Goa s image. 
And you have now learned that he has not been 
made in God's image yet. The error into 
which men have fallen right here is, that they 
have thought this creation was making man in 
in the form in which they now see him, that of 
the animal. Whereas, it was to take the ani- 
mal and change it into the image of God. "And 
God created man in his own image, in the image 
of God created He him; male and female crea- 
ted He them." Not that they were then in the 
image of God, but to them he gave the property 
of life which would perfect them into the image 
of God when they reached heaven or when they 
were transformed into angels. But the lan- 
guage of the scripture is designed to teach that 
both the male and the female stood an equal 
chance to assume the image of God. "And the 
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground," 
not when he created Adam in his own image, 
but long before; for man, the animal, was an old 
inhabitant of the Earth when Adam began his 
existence, having been developed in the ages 
that had gone before. Observe that Cain went 
out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in 
the land of Nod on the east of Eden. "And 
Cain knew his wife," etc. She was not his sis- 
ter. If there were no other inhabitants on the 
Earth, who was she.-* The Bible does not talk of 



19 

any except those with whom the sons of God, 
Adam's descendants, came in contact, and sc 
does not stop to tell of the many people living 
in Asia; but speaks of one only, Cain's wife. But 
her existence implies that of others. What God 
did in creating Adam was to introduce into the 
animal man an angel-producing virtue. Adam 
would become an angel. What God did in cre- 
ating Christ was to introduce into the animal a 
God-producing virtue. Christ would become 
God. Adam violated the natural law of devel- 
opment, and fell into death. "In the day thou 
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Thus death 
entered. Christ observed the natural law and, 
just as naturally, developed into the image oJ 
God, nay, more than the image; into God, abso- 
lutely. Now, I have perhaps sufificiently shown 
you the truth of creation, and also the truth of its 
harmony with the inspired account of it. I have 
also shown you that the account has been ren- 
dered extremely untrue by being misunderstood. 
Now, the truth of inspiration does not depend 
any more on the accuracy of its statement than 
it does on a correct understanding of the 
statement. It makes no difference how true it 
may be when rightly understood, it will cer- 
tainly not be true when wrongly understood. It 
is then not more a question of statement than it 
is a question of understanding. 



20 



No, not nearly so much. For we know the 
statement is right, and where it seems wrong 
we must know that it is the understanding of it 
that is wrong. And, it is very much better to 
say I do not undertand it, than to insist on some 
impossible meaning being accepted. You will, 
perhaps, ask, Is it never to be understood.-* Yes, 
it is to be understood. ''The comforter shall 
lead you into all truth;" "the truth shall make 
you free," and "if the truth makes you free, you 
shall be free indeed." None of these things 
have yet been accomplished. You would pos- 
sibly like some rule by which to be guided in 
determining whether your understanding of it is 
right or wrong. I will give you this great truth 
as your guide. God created all things out of 
nothing, nothing but God, for at first there was 
nothing but God. There is to-day, in all the 
universe, nothing but God and nothing — God 
and nothing! How strange that sounds! and 
yet, how true. They are the equivalent of truth 
and error. Since there was nothing but God 
and nothing, and God made all things out of 
what there was, and since nothing is nothing 
but nothing, it follows that God made all things 
out of God. But, if God made all things in na- 
ture out of Himself, then the laws of nature and 
the l^ws of God's own existence must be iden- 
tical. God cannot violate the law of nature 



21 



without distroying his own existence; for, to 
violate the law of his own existence, would be 
to destroy himself, which is impossible. Thus, 
in a sense, God and nature are the same. Here 
language fails. Our power of perception may, 
with thought enough, avail us something, but 
we shall not hope to comprehend God. But this 
we may know, and it is the great truth of which 
I spoke: That, if we understand God, and un- 
derstand nature, we shall know that they are 
both in perfect harmony. Hence the rule: First 
learn what is true in nature, and then interpret 
the inspired word so that it shall agree with 
that truth; remembering, that if they do not 
agree, you misunderstand one or the other, or 
both. 

But, my dear, angelic instructor, be pleased 
to accept my most grateful thanks for all you 
have said, and excuse my strange simplicity in 
recalling what to me was a very, very surprising 
utterance from whose strange effects upon my 
mind I seem unable to recover. It was this: 
**A11 theological systems were founded on fun- 
damental error." It seems so strange. I had 
been, on Earth, a most vigorous defender of one 
of those theological systems. I most devoutly 
believed that my everlasting salvation depended 
wholly on my believing its fundamental doctrine. 
I did believe them, I preached them, I prayed 



22 



them, I would have died for them, and I have 
come to heaven through them. All this bliss 
which here I enjoy I attributed to my belief in 
them; yet, you tell me that they are founded on 
fundamental error, and I know you cannot be 
mistaken. How very, very strange, that those 
dreadful errors should have been fraught with 
such a glorious fruition. Ah! can it be, and, yet, 
that wonderful theology be so erroneous.-^ It 
must be, because you say so. 

No, not because I say so. If it is true, it 
must be because it is true, and not because I, or 
any one, says so. What I say must be said, 
because in the nature of things it must be true, 
and it is to be received because it is true, but 
only on sufficient evidence to prove its truth. 

Well, pray dispossess me of those funda- 
mental errors, and tell me what the truth is; 
and, are there many of those errors.'' 

They are legion, and the truth is so envel- 
oped in error as to be almost entirely obscured. 
Oh! but wandering through this labarynth of 
ruin, how strange that I ever reached this glori- 
ous goal? I beg you excuse this thought, but I 
know you will see in it only an expression of 
surprise. 

My dear, young Lord, I have already told 
you that truth is everything, error is nothing, 
and every existence must have some truth in it, 



23 

for if it were utterly ▼old of truth, it would be 
utterly void of existence. Therefore, every 
theory has some truth in it. Now, theology as- 
sumes that there is a God; that is true. That 
God is almighty, that also is true. That God is 
all wise, boundless in goodness; and this is truth. 
But, does theology so define God that man can 
tell what He is.? Does it render clear how God 
is almighty, all good, or all wise.-* It tells you 
that God knows all things. That He knew the 
end from the beginning, and that He knew all 
the incidents between the beginning and the 
end. That God hates sin intensely; that He 
does not want man to sin, but that He knew man 
would sin before He *iade him. That He could 
have made man in any way. Then, it excites 
your wonder that God knew man would sin, did 
not want him to sin, and yet ciid not make him 
so he could not sin. Yet it goes on, as it were, 
piling up one wonder upon another, until it pre- 
sents you with a vast conglomeration of incon- 
sistencies, contradictions and impossibilities, 
and then insists on your swallowing them all, or 
consigns you to the greatest absurdity conceiv- 
able, — an orthodox catholic perdition. Have 
you not realized the astoundingly preposterous 
character of such teaching since your arrival 
among us, and during the progress of our con- 
versation.-* 



24 

I must say that my earthly ideas are rapidly 
dissolving. 

But I will endeavor to show you how God 
is all wisdom, all goodness, all powerful. Do 
you observe me support this beautiful flower in 
my hand.? 

I do. 

Well, whose power holds it up.? 

Why, yours, of course. 

My power! Did you say my power? 

Most certainly. 

Ah! how wrong you are. If this were my 
power, then God were not all powerful, for I 
should have some power that God did not own, 
and His power would be limited by my power, 
or would reach its limit when it reached the limit 
of my power, and it would not be illimitable. 
No, this flower is supported in my hand, by 
God's power. So you will see I control some of 
God's power. You have some of God's power. 
Each person on Earth has some of God's power. 
Each angel has some of God's power. He 
has reserved to Himself a vast amount of His 
power. Now, take all the power I have, all you 
have, all the power each and every man and 
angel has, and all that God himself has; put it 
all together, and make a great mountain of power 
of it, having in it all the power in the universe, 
and this is God's power and all His power. And 



25 

God is all powerful, because He owns all the 
power in the universe. Just so is He all good- 
ness, and just so is he all wisdom. But, because 
God is thus all powerful, it does not follow that 
God can make anything in any way, or every- 
thing in every way. God is absolute perfection. 
God can make anything that it is right to make, 
and he can make it in just one way and no 
other. He cannot make anything that it is 
wrong to make, nor can he make anything in 
more than one way. Because there can be only 
one perfect way, and God can make a perfect 
thing only in a perfect way, and he cannot make 
an imperfect thing. 

Be pleased to excuse me, my most honored 
and loved instructor, but there are some strange 
thoughts dawning upon my mind. Some things 
I greatly desire to know. Indeed, many of 
them, and yet I hesitate to ask. Not that I am 
ashamed of my want of knowledge, but I fear 
^hat my questions might seem to lack something 
of that high regard and reverent consideration 
which your exalted and gracious self must always 
receive. 

Your manifestations of awe and reverence 
do not surprise me, as your short acquaintance 
here has not enabled you yet to comprehend 
the perfect equality and universal oneness of all 
the angelic hosts. Be pleased to address me in 



26 



milder terms, more, indeed, as a beloved inferior 
than as an esteemed superior; but feel perfectly 
at your ease. 

With your kindly permission, then, I will 
ask you, first, why you have twice called me 
Lord, as though I were worthy to be anything 
but a servant, or to be even a servant? Your 
question is easy to answer as will fully appear as 
our conversation proceeds. I will simply say 
now that you are lord, for you are of our Lord 
the Christ, and are exalted above every name.'* 

Glory be to our Lord and His Christ for all 
Their wonderful condescension. But I would fain 
ask why the Infinite in all His boundless good- 
ness and loving kindness hath permitted sin to 
enter the world; and why it is his good pleasure 
to permit it to so long afflict the human race.** 
Or, why did sin enter the world.^ Why is it 
allowed to stay there.-* 

These are questions which, I believe, Earth's 
theology has utterly failed to answer in anything 
like a satisfactory way, and that failure is evi- 
dence of the imperfect and erroneous character 
of their theology. A system which fails to 
answer the basic questions on which it rests, 
must be more lamentably defective. 

But can these great questions be so an- 
swered in the language of men, as that the 
human mind can comprehend them.? 



27 

Let us see. 1 believe I have already laid 
the foundation for their answer. I have told 
you that God is perfection. I now tell you that 
God is the embodiment and perfection of good- 
ness. But God is animated and intelligent na- 
ture, and animated and intelligent nature is ir- 
resistably active. We see that nature cannot 
be at perfect rest, so we k^now that God can- 
not be at perfect rest, but delighteth in the 
perfect works of his own hand. The great 
fact of all work is that none is perfect 
until it is fully completed. But God con- 
templates his work as finished when it is onl}^ 
begun, for he knows what the end will be. He 
carefully lays all his plans, prepares to overcome 
all obstacles, and gives himself all the time 
needed to do the work. He has plenty of time 
since he has all eternity; and, as he will bring 
glory out of every circumstance and incident, 
no matter how untoward and unpromising, it 
matters litttle how much time it takes. Having 
added thus to the foundation before laid, I will 
now make plain the reason why God made man 
as he did, and thus permitted sin to enter the 
world. God created man for an object, indeed, a 
very much more glorious object than you are 
even yet able to conjecture, much less compre- 
hend. Although your comprehensive faculties 
are largely in advance of those of Earthly 



28 



minds, I deem it best to confine my explanation 
to the limits of their comprehensive capacities. I 
shall talk to you as though you were still on 
the Earth. For what did God create man.^ He 
created man that man might give to him honor 
and glory. But a man cannot give away what 
he has not, nor can he give away what he can- 
not keep. For he can give away only what is 
his own, and, if it is his own, he has a perfect 
right to keep it or to give it away as he shall 
think will most promote his own happiness; and 
there is no power, God nor person, who has a 
right to demand of him what it is not his pleas- 
ure to give. God never made such a demand, 
and they who say you must obey the require- 
ments of God or he will mercilessly punish you, 
make a most egregious mistake, as this conver- 
sation will latterly show. If man gives honor 
and glory to God, he must do so of his own free 
choice, or it is not a gift. If God says, you 
shall give me honor or I will inflict awful pun- 
ishment, then he makes it impossible for you to 
give. No one can be compelled to give. He 
may be robbed by force, but cannot be forced 
to give. Hence, if God employs force or threat 
against your free will, he is a robber and not a 
God. But, could your own natural, or unnatural, 
father compel you to honor him if you did not 
think him worthy of honor.? Suppose he had 



29 

lived a disgraceful life till you came to hate hitn, 
and in a state of inebriacy, should force you 
down on your knees and threaten your life if you 
did not honor him. He might compel you to 
say you loved him in order to escape his ven- 
geance. But would you love him more forthat.-* 
Nay, but what must we think of a theology 
which holds up its God to such a view, nay, to a 
worse, a vastly worst, view.'' It tells you that 
God will relentlessly punish all who do not ac- 
cept this monstrous theology, even though they 
never heard of it or had died long before it was 
invented. Oh! how horrible, how horrible! 
Thank God, this theology is not the bible. If 
God desires you to honor Him He must show Him- 
self worthy of your honor, and must satisfy you 
that your highest happiness will be secured by 
according to Him the glory His unspeakable 
goodness to you hath so abundantly earned. 
Thus He will receive your boundless adoration, 
and you will reap the bliss of Heaven. 

But, does this account for sin in the world.^ 
Not exactly, but it does account for the possi- 
bility of sin in the world. Thus, God created man 
as he created him, that man might be able to do 
the thing he was designed to do. If he had 
been created in any other way the creation 
would have been an utter failure. God could 
create a stone, a tree, a horse or anything else 



30 



but man in some other way. But a stone, a 
tree, a horse, or anythiug else but man, is not a 
man, nor could a man be created in any other 
way, for God's way is the right way and there 
is but one right way possible. But do not the 
scriptures teach that all things are possible with 
God.? It must be understood that all right 
things are possible. No wrong thing is possible 
with God. I have already remarked, that a 
thing is only perfect when it is finished. The 
work of man's creation is as yet far from being 
finished. Sin is the rubbish, the broken stone, 
the brick-bats, the waste matter, the refuse 
which litters the ground as the building goes up. 
It is valueless, and must be cleared away. Still, 
the edifice could not be erected without it. Sin 
is the inevitable offal of the refining, purifying 
and perfecting process, and while its presence is 
offensive, its existence is inevitable while the 
work of building goes on. When the structure 
is 'completed the rubbish will be cleared away 
and the perfect workmanship of God will appear 
in all its incomparable grandeur. The work of 
creation, physical creation, was completed by 
the hand of God, the father, and his work ended 
when he conveyed all power in Heaven and 
Earth to Christ, the Lord, after his resurrection. 
Then began the work of the Son, which was to 
create the moral or religious man. Or, in the 



31 



language of Paul, "to take out of the world a 
people for His name," His name is God. It 
was then to select from men, a people to be God. 
You, being one of those people, are God. 
Hence, I have called you Lord, you are my 
Lord, as Jesus is my Lord, because he is Christ, 
the head, but ye are the body. That is, the 
saved under the gospel are the body. The 
head and the body make the one Christ, the one 
person. The one great army of God, the seed 
of the woman, ''that shall bruise the serpent's 
head." . I deem it unnecessary to farther elabo- 
rate these ideas, but leave you for the present 
to develop their perfection by thought. 

Now, will you kindly tell me what was the 
particular sin which Adam committed and what 
did it entail upon him and his race.** 

Your question might easily be answered in 
in a few words, but how would you know that it 
was correctly answered if I did not take time 
to prove it.? 

I would accept your testimony as conclusive. 

No, not so; the Savior did not ask so much, 
but said, let every word be established in the 
mouth of two witnesses. Always find at least 
two witnesses, that agree as to the fact be- 
fore you pass judgement. I shall be one of 
these witnesses, the inevitable must be the 
other in this case. To determine then what 



32 

sin Adain committed, we must determine what 
sin it was possible for him to commit, as well as 
what sin is. Sin is any injury which may be in- 
flicted upon any one. It is anything that is 
distructive of life, health, happiness or property. 
In its simplest form it is the appvropriation of 
what belongs to one by another, to his own use, 
without an equivalent return previously agreed 
on. But this is robbery, and here I will say, 
all sin is robbery. To take another's property is 
robbery; to take another's good name by slander 
is robbery; to take one's pleasure by inflict- 
ing pain is robbery. There is one sin only, and 
that sin is robbery. Adam was therefore guilty 
of robbery. 

But pray tell me, how did he commit 
robbery, and whom did he rob.^* 

There are but three persons whom it is 
possible to rob. He must have robbed one of 
these. That is, you may rob yourself, you may 
rob some one else, or you may rob God; and 
there are none others you can rob. Adam did 
not rob himself, although he was the greatest 
looser and that is, by the immutable law of re- 
tributive justice, always the case. Every robber 
inevitably robs himself more than he robs any 
one else. "The way of the trangressor is hard." 
Adam did not rob any other person, for there 
was no one else there. But he did rob God. He 



33 

owned nothing except what God had given him, 
and he appropriated what God had not given 
him. This is a clear case of robbery. "But 
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 
thou shalt not eat; in the day thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam might 
know all about good, but he could know nothing 
about evil till he had done evil. He could 
suffer none of the consequences of sin till he 
had sinned, and then he could not fail to suffer 
them. Not because God had said so, but God 
said so because he knew it must be so. And he 
instructed Adam, and showed him the dread- 
ful consequences of sin, and sought to prevent 
him from violating the natural law of life, and 
thus involve himself in death. Under the in- 
fluence of Satan, Adam took the property, and 
died; for, *'in the day thou eatest thereof thou 
shalt surely die." Not that he at once lost his 
natural life, but, "sin entered, and death by 
sin." That is, he lost the property of life, — of 
immortal life. The germ of death had entered, 
and it completed its work years afterward, and 
Adam slept in death to awake only at the 
judgment resurrection.. As I before said, hav- 
ing lost this property of life before he had any 
child, he could not transmit it to his descen- 
dants. So, "in Adam all die;" but "in Christ all 
hall be made alive." Adam's failure showed 



34 

the necessity of a Christ; thus his failure was one 
link in the great chain of events designed to 
produce Christ. Sin was a necessity. For "the 
seed of the. woman shall bruise the serpent's 
head." But, if the seed of the woman (man) 
had been sinless, it could never have bruised 
the serpent's head. * 

Excuse me pray, but I so much wish to 
know what it is to bruise the serpent's head. 

This is a figure of speech which means, in a 
word, to induce Satan to return to righteousness; 
to acknowledge the sovereignty of God; to be- 
come a loyal, obedient and loving subject of the 
*'seed of the woman," the Lord Jesus Christ.- 

Indeed! Can we hope that Satan will ever 
repent and be saved, ever be good again.-* 

Most certainly he will, for the Earth was 
created, the human race developed, and Christ 
died to that end. It is the great ultimate pur- 
pose of God, and it cannot fail, for ''God shall 
be all in all,'' and ''then cometh the end," — end 
of sin. That is the only thing that can end. 
As I have just remarked, if the seed of the wo- 
man (not Jesus, this time) had been sinless, the 
serpent's head could never have been bruised by 
it. By this I mean, that if sin had not entered, 
or, if the race had never be,en involved in sin, 
then there would not have been any Christ. 
There would have been no war between good 



35 

and evil, and there could have been no conquest 
of good over evil; which means that no power 
greater than existed before, would have been 
developed by the race of Adam. But the power 
of angels, which existed before, was incapable 
of overcoming and subduing Satan. 

^ But could not God himself overthrow Satan 
by his* own power.!* 

God could overthrow Satan, and God will 
overthrow him; but he will do it by the agency 
of the Adamic race and through the help of sin. 
This may be illustrated in this way: God said 
to Gabriel, "Behold the condition of the Earth, 
see the^ suffering, the war, pestilence, famine, 
sickness, sorrow, pain and woe prevailing there." 
**I have seen with wonder and amazement," re- 
plies Gabriel, *'the lamentable condition of 
things on the Earth, and have wondered why 
you have permitted this state of things to exist 
so long." ''I do not intend that it shall continue 
always." ''Pray then why not stop it.?" "I 
shall stop it, and for that purpose suppose you 
now descend to Earth with a host of angels and 
persuade Satan and his hosts to return to their 
allegiance. Then this evil will be ended, and 
the human race relieved from all its sorrows." 
Now, the Angel Gabriel, having descended to 
Earth with a host of loyal angels, soon encoun- 
tered Satan, and sought by persuasive means to 



36 

induce his return to loyalty to God. But Satan 
replied by an effort to persuade the loyal angels 
to enter into sin. It soon became apparent 
that the persuasive power of the wicked one 
was more likely to involve the good in sin, than 
was the eloquence of the good to induce the 
wicked to forsake their ways; so, Gabriel found 
it wise to return to his home in Heaven rather 
than longer expose his hosts to the temptations 
of Satan. So he did, and reported his failure. 
God said, "I knew you would fail. I sent you 
simply to demonstrate the impossibility of suc- 
cess on that plan, and to show the necessity of 
the pursuit of a different course." It will be 
necessary therefore to make an entire change in 
the mode of warfare. Not that God's plans 
were changed, but simply a new feature was de- 
veloped in those plans. This is God's way of 
doing it, because it is the only way in which He 
could do it. It must not be supposed, however, 
that God's power is either exhausted or limited 
by the fact that He knows how to do a thing 
in exactly one way, and does it. Nor, that it is 
any less the work of God, because he creates a 
world, creates a race of men, and allows them to 
be involved in the fires of sin, in order to pro- 
duce a power great enough to overcome Satan 
and the power of sin. You will now see that 
sin entered the world, because a race created for 



37 



the purpose for which man was created, would 
inevitably sin, and without sin that purpose could 
never be accomplished. God did not desire the 
race to sin, but He did desire to suppress sin, 
and he knew that they would sin. He, therefore, 
made them so they could sin for they would 
have been of no use if He had not so made them. 
I think this sufficiently answers your questions 
on this subject, and makes it plain enough to be 
comprehended by the human mind in its present 
state of development. 

But it seems so strange since sin was such 
a necessity, that God should threaten the sinner 
with such awful punishment as that of hell or 
endless fire. 

Have you met any one of Earth's lost one's 
yet in hell.? 

How strange your question! Indeed, I have 
not been in hell, nor have I seen any one there. 

Do not be surprised if I correct your state- 
ment that you have not been in hell. I do not 
wonder at your making it, but it is wide off the 
truth as you will find in due time. 

Oh, I see! I know really nothing of the won- 
derful plans and purposes of our all adorable 
God, the Lord, Jehovah! Blessed be his glori- 
ous name for ever and ever! Praise the Lord, 
O, my soul, and let all that is within me praise 
him. Salvation, oh! what a salvation, when 



38 

God, the Lord, shall be all in all; when perfect 
righteousness, purity and holiness shall perme- 
ate every mind; wnen all shall be love and joy 
and gladness; when no intelligence shall be 
afflicted with sin, and when there shall be no 
more sin nor sinner in all the universe. When 
all, all, shall love and adore our gracious Lord 
and Savior. Then, indeed, will the end have 
come, the end of sin, the end of sorrow and the 
end of death. Ah! that then is the end of the 
world. The world is sin, and the end of sin is 
the end of the world. 

You are right, my beloved. How rapidly 
doth the mind expand in this genial clime. 
*'And God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither 
sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any 
more pain; for, the former things are passed 
away. And He that sat upon the throne, said. 
Behold, I make all things new." All things will 
be made new, and all sorrow and sighing, pain 
and suffering will forever pass away, — not from 
Heaven or in Heaven, as is commonly thought. 
There never was any of these things in Heaven; 
therefore, they cannot pass away from Heaven. 
They have prevailed on Earth, and from the 
Earth is the only place they can pass. Thus 
the human race on Earth shall be freed from 



39 



them and that will be the new Earth. All this 
will be in the judgment. 

Now, pray, do you not mean after the 
judgment? after the righteous have been separ- 
ated from the wicked and the wicked have been 
sent away into "everlasting fire prepared for the 
devil and his angels?" 

No; I mean exactly what I say. Your quo- 
tation shows so much error in your understand- 
ing of that scripture, that I am almost inclined 
to digress sufficiently to set you right as to its 
meaning. However, I will leave that for the 
future when you will perhaps need but little ex- 
planation to correct error. I said all this will 
be in the judgment. Now, the word judg- 
ment in the Bible means governjnent^ as that 
word is now understood. The judgment is not 
simply separating sheep from goats, nor good 
from bad; nor is this act of separating any part 
of the judgment. That would, however, inev- 
itably follow, if there were any bad in the judg- 
ment. The judgment, or government, of Christ 
on Earth, when it is fully set up, will have no bad 
in it, so there can be no separating. The ob- 
ject of the judgment, or government, will be to 
keep any and all from becoming bad; not to 
punish, but to save. Thus, in the righteous 
judgment of Christ, all will be good, all will be 
strictly honest, and the highest aim of every 



40 



one will be to do the greatest possible good for 
any and every one else. The motto of that age 
will be, "He who does the most for every one 
else, does the most for himself." No one there 
would, for anything, manifest the slightest 
disregard for an other, neither by word nor 
action. Profoundest love for all will univer- 
sally prevail. A dishonest thought" will never 
enter a mind. Every person will do his exact 
amount of work, and receive his exact amount of 
pay. Every commodity will be bought and sold 
in strictly accurate measure and at a perfectly 
proper price. No effort will be made to make 
money, but every effort will be made to do ex- 
actly right. Perfect and unlimited confidence 
will obtain among all the Earth's inhabitants, and 
this confidence will never be abused. 

You have surely been describing the New 
Jerusalem, which I have always thought was 
Heaven. Now, can it be that is a mistake also.^ 

Most assurudly that is a mistake. The 
New Jerusalem is the Eden prefigured in Gene- 
sis, and spoken of there as the home of Adam, 
meaning the perfected race of man. The per- 
fect Adam, standing for the race, his home in 
Eden standing for the paradise which is yet to 
be developed, and which is called the judgment 
of Christ or the New Jerusalem which came 
down from God out of Heaven, and into which 



41 

*'the kings of the Earth do bring their glory and 
honor." The kings of the Earth do not bring 
their glory and honor into Heaven, Nor would 
it be said, if Heaven were meant, that it came 
down from God out of Heaven; nor yet would it 
be called the tabernacle of God with men, and 
that "he will dwell with them." Dwell with 
men. Men do not dwell in Heaven, but on 
Earth; and if God dwells with men He must 
dwell on Earth. He will certainly dwell on the 
Earth and perfect the home of men till it shall 
be to man what Heaven is to angels, a perfect 
home. "And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes, and there shall be no more 
death." No more death on Earth, the only 
place where there is death. It cannot possibly 
be said that there shall be no more death irt 
Heaven, because there never was any death in 
Heaven. It cannot be said there is no more of 
a thing in a place where there never was any of 
that thing. Death exists on the Earth and only 
from the Earth can it be removed. ''The last 
enemy tliat shall be conquered is death." When 
there is no more death, "then shall come to pass 
the saying, death is swallowed up in victory." 
Then will **this mortal have put on immortality. 
Then will "this corruptible have put on incor-' 
ruption." Then shall it be said, "O, Death 
where is thy sting.? O, Hell, where is thy vie- 



42 

tory?" There will then be no sting, for there 
will be no death. There will be no victory, for 
there will be no hell. God will have wiped out 
both death and hell, when he has ''wiped away 
all tears from their eyes." 

Now, our conversation has drifted from the 
beginning to the end of sin. The interme- 
diate events have received little or no attention. 
I have observed that many important mat- 
ters remain unnoticed,' and should be greatly 
pleased to have them illustrated. I remember 
desiring to ask you a while ago about the man- 
ner and object of Christ's mission to Earth. I 
had always thought he come to save the immor- 
tal souls of repentant sinners. The irreverent 
might suppose from these conversations that the 
true design was to save Satan rather than souls, 
an idea that never occurred to me while on 
Earth. 

Really, now, it is strange that, here in 
Heaven, such a thought should enter the mind; 
but, if you here encounter difficulty in accepting 
my presentation of the matter, how little likely 
would the people of Earth be to accept what I 
have said. But, pray, what was it led you to 
suppose that the mission of Christ was to save 
immortal souls from endless punishment.^ 

We have always understood that to be true 
in every age of Chrfstianity. This has been a 



43 

fundamental doctrine of the creeds, that Christ 
died, **the just for the unjust." And thus to save 
the unjust from the eternal wrath of God. 

It is true that Christ died, that is. He was 
killed. "The just instead of the unjust." He 
died, that they might live, and that they m.ight 
escape the wrath to come. Dying to save an 
immortal soul would be an entirely different 
thing, indeed. Where did you get the idea of 
an immortal soul, anyway.^^ Would you be sur- 
prised if I should say to you that no such 
word can be found anywhere in the bible.^ That 
from the first word in Genesis to the last word 
in the Revelation, there is no such word as 
immortal soiiU Now, does it not seem strange 
that, if the writers of the bible wisljed to teach 
that men had immortal souls, and that these 
souls were in any danger of eternal punishment, 
in a matter so important as this and in a book so 
large as the bible, they should have utterly failed 
to mention]such a soul.? It would seem that the 
immortal soul and its possible fate should have 
been the chief burden of their talk. It certainly 
would have been if they had ever heard of it, 
and of its supposed great danger. On the contra- 
ry, we may safely say that not more than two 
writers in the bible ever heard of an immortal 
soul, and they took no account of it and never 
thought of saving it from any punishment after 



44 



death. This idea of an immortal soul is an old 
heathen conjecture, and has no warrant in nature 
nor revelation. If it were true, then, the bible 
is perfectly worthless, and salvation utterly im- 
possible. If this heathen conception be correct, 
the immortality and endlessness of sin would be 
established, and the im.potency and inability of 
God to achieve any great good in the world 
would be unquestionable. To talk of the infi- 
nite power of a God who must depend for his 
success upon the puny will of his most helpless 
creatures, without power to sway that will or to 
bring it into harmony with his own, is the climax 
of absurdity. God will not always be the vic- 
tim of these vile calumnies, peddled to his 
shame by his most devoted Earthly admirers to 
bolster up a grouudless theology evolved in the 
dark ages by those who did the best they knew, 
but who had just emerged from the haunts of 
the mother of harlots, and from whom" no per- 
fect system could possibly emanate. Yet, in 
the economy of God, these vagaries, as doctrines 
must run their course that the puryfying fires of 
hell might eliminate the dross of sin from the 
race. These dreadful fires of hell have been fed 
more largely from this one source, the fallacy of 
the soul's immortality, than, perhaps, from all 
other sources combined; as, witness the myriads 
of martyrs who gave up their lives because 



45 

their persecutors thought this punishment nec- 
essary to prevent the damnation of immortal 
souls. Whereas, the only damnation to be 
escaped was that inflicted by these persecutors, 
and the only souls to be saved were the victims 
they tortured. The person himself is the soul, 
and the hell to be escaped is the suffering of 
men in this life. Think of infinite goodness 
charged with this awful falacy and its horrible 
consequences. This is truly the acme of error. 
Truth will not always down. The delusive 
power of Satan is already largely expended, 
and the dawn of truth already begins to illumine 
the religious horizon. The glory of God ere 
long will break in splendor upon the enrap- 
tured vision of the beholder, and Christ, the 
Lord, will appear in the clouds of Heaven at- 
tended by all the hosts of glory. The Nsw 
Jerusalem will then come down from God out of 
Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her 
husband. God has said, "My spirit shall not 
always strive with men." Why not.? Because, 
the human race perfectly enveloped in the glory 
of God, and full of the immutable spirit of good- 
ness, will most lovingly 'refrain from every ap- 
pearance of evil. They will not require the 
chidings of God's spirit to keep them measurably 
near the line of virtue. God's spirit will cease 
to strive with men when the good of men no 



46 

longer demands its chidings. "If I were to take 
the wings of the morning, and fly to the utter- 
most parts of the earth, Thou art there;" or "if 
I make my bed in hell, Thou art there." For 
what art Thou there, O, God? For the protec- 
tion and defense of you, my most beloved 
votary, that you may have the benefit of the 
benign smile and gracious interposition of your 
loving Lord. Whatever may be your situation, 
or wherever your lines may fall, 'T will never 
leave thee nor forsake thee," "but will be with 
thee in every trial," and though the heavens 
fall I will bring thee off more than conquerer. 
Blessed assurance! Who will not love, adore 
and serve such a friend, such a father, such a 
God? ''Come unto me all ye ends of the Earth 
and be ye saved." I said Jesus was killed, "the 
just for the unjust." The pure and holy died 
that the vile and wicked might live. Not that 
they might live in their villainy and wickedness, 
but that a way might be provided for them to 
live, till they could escape the dire consequen- 
ces of their folly and sinfulness. The just died. 

But how could the just die? Is it not an 
immutable law of nature that without sin there 
can be no death? 

It is, most unquestionably. 

And, yet you say, Jesus was without sin. 
How then could he die? 



47 



Jesus was as pure a»nd holy as God himself. 
"Thou art my beloved Sin in whom I am well 
pleased," and of himself he could not possibly 
die. If he had remained in the wilderness forty 
years without eating, he still would have lived. 
In order to die, he took upon himself the sin of 
the world. Who will doubt that the sin of the 
world is sufficient to enable even a god to die. 
The slightest voli^ntary commission of sin by 
any responsible person is utterly ruinous, because 
it destroys the life-developing principle, or blasts 
the life of the sinner. As boiling water will de- 
stroy life in an egg, so will sin destroy life in a 
person. The life thus destroyed in the egg does 
not imtnediately annihilate the egg, but prevents 
it from ever producing a fowl. So sin in a per- 
son does not immediately annihilate the person, 
but it will cause death and, without divine inter- 
positkrn, that death will be as eternal and as 
complete in the case of a person, as in the case 
of an Ggg. Hence, the necessity of a plan of 
salvation. Since the law of sin is death, and 
since every sinner must die, it was utterly im- 
possible to introduce life into the human race 
without first conquering death with death. That 
is, killing death. Jesus died that men naight 
live. If He had not died, the people would not 
only not be alive, but they never would have 
lived after he had fulfilled the law; that is, the 



48 



people would not only have lost the chance of 
immortal life, but they would have lost their 
animal life, and the whole human race would 
have gone down into death and annihilation — 
would have perished. Not that God wanted it 
so, but because it could be no other way. As I 
have said to you, God and nature are under the 
same law, and God must observe the law of His 
own being, as certainly as rrian must observe 
the law of man's own being. The difference is 
that while God does observe the law of His being, 
man has violated the law of his being, and ex- 
posed himself to annihilation. The work to be 
done is to rescue man from annihilation and to 
remove the danger of his ever falling into it 
again. Is not this grand achievement worthy 
of God.-^ Will not its success redound to His 
eternal glory.? To get a clear idea, on the plane 
of the natural, of how the just died instead of 
the unjust, it will be necessary to go back to the 
starting point and examine briefly the plan of 
salvation as it developed itself along down the 
ages. "And the Lord said to Abram, lift up now 
thine eyes, and look from the place where thou 
art, northward and southward and eastward and 
westward. For all the land which thou seest, 
to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee 
forever." Thus God gave this land to Abram, 
and "to his seed after him, for an everlasting 



49 

possession." And, as God could swear by no 
greater, He swore by Himself to do this thing. 
There were no conditions in this promise. *'I 
will give you this land," says the oath of God. 
"Heaven, and Earth shall pass away, but my 
word [this oath] shall not pass away." ''Not 
one jot or tittle of the law shall in any wise pass 
till all be fulfilled." This great idea of substitu- 
tion is the fundamental fact of the whole bible 
system, and is declared immediately after 
Adam's sin had been committed. In these 
words: ''The seed of the woman shall bruise the 
serpent's head." The situation was this: The 
battle was between God and Satan, each one 
trying to overcome the other. Satan's forces 
were recruited from disaffected angels. God 
hurled against him the loyal hosts of Heaven, 
but their only weapon was Icve; and, as the 
enemy loved evil more than good, the loyal 
angels were as likely to be estranged from God, 
as Satan was to be brought back. Such a strife 
might go on through eternity with varying suc- 
cess on either side. This being true, it was ap- 
parent to God that a force must be called into 
requisition which would be invulnerable to the 
wiles of Satan. Having no such force, there was 
but one thing to do, and that was to create It. 
For this purpose the Earth was fitted up as a 
place on which to rear it. The human race was 



50 

developed and so far advanced that one of its 
men and one of its women were selected to 
propogate a race of beings that should be equal 
to the work to be done, after they had become 
full-fledged, glorified saints in Heaven. How- 
beit, when Satan saw Adam and Eve in the 
Garden, he suspicioned what they were there 
for, and said to himself, **I will spoil this 
little scheme of His Majesty. I will induce this 
beautiful pair of innocents to transgress the nat- 
ural law of their existence, and thus they will 
die without angelic issue. God will have His 
labor for His pains, and even He will learn some- 
thing of the cunning of the God of this world. 
Indeed, to my mind, it is a little presumptious 
on His part to invade my kingdom with this in- 
nocent looking pair, and, no doubt, He will be a 
little chagrined when He finds these beauties 
have sold their birth-right for a song, a doleful 
song, which they will always sing themselves in 
sorrow till it brings their gray hairs down to the 
grave. My dignity is hurt by such a show of 
fight, and, while I pity the Innocent, I must for- 
ever reprobate the judgment of a God who would 
hurl such gladiators into the arena. God's ways 
are said to be past finding out, but I think, per- 
haps, I am onto his ways." Thus Satan solilo- 
quized, and then, approaching Eve, the weaker 
vessel, he succeeded in winning her over, and 



SI 

then used her influence to induce Adam to sin. 
Now, he had captured them both, and was 
greatly elated at his success. Poor old deceiver. 
It is dawning on his mind that, while he deceived 
Adam a little, he deceived Satan immensely 
more; and that, while he cheated Adam out of 
the happiness he should have enjoyed in this 
life, he introduced an element of power which 
would completely overcome himself and all his 
angels, restoring Adam and all his race to the 
happiness they should have enjoyed, and bring- 
ing many of that race to a position that is ex- 
alted above every name. He overreached himself. 
Was there ever a sin committed in which the 
sinner did not overreach himself.? But, death 
had entered, and, by and immutable law of na- 
ture, every mortal who sins must die. The 
question then was. By what process can Satan 
and this law be so far circumvented as to make 
it possible to produce life on the Earth and in- 
fuse it into the human race. It was plain that 
the human race must reach a higher state of 
moral development than Adam had attained to 
before this could be done. Therefore, God al- 
lowed Himself 4,000 years in which thus to de- 
velop, not the race, but a single one of that 
race, who might be permitted (by the race)to live 
long enough to introduce such a reform in the 
world, as would produce the desired result. 



52 

The race having advanced sufficiently for his 
purpose, God sought out Abram, who was a 
philosopher, scientist and preacher of the great 
truth that there was but one God. He lived in 
an age of idolatry, polytheism, and soul trans- 
migration. These were errors of about equal 
importance. Abram opposed them and became, 
of course, the victim of their persecution; and 
being driven from post to pillar by the dealers 
in graven images, whose business was injured by 
his teaching that their idols were not gods, and 
being hotly pursued, he began to realize that, to 
live in this world, at least two things were es- 
sential. First, a man must have life; second, he 
must have a place in which to live. Abram had 
life, but his persecutors would allow him no 
place to live, but, in his sore distress, God came 
to his rescue, and told him to go west. Accord- 
ingly, Abram got together his fairdly and effects, 
and left the land of Ur of the Chaldeans, and 
removed to Canaan. Here it was that God 
promised to give to him, and to his seed after 
him, all the land for an everlasting possession. 
Upon this promise rest all the law and the gos- 
pel. God's oath was on record. He had sworn 
unconditianally to give ail this land (the whole 
Earth) to Abraham, and his seed after him, for 
an everlasting possession, while yet, Abraham 
did not hold in fee simple so much of it as was 



53 

required for a grave for his wife. To bury her, 
he had to buy the relinquishment of one of 
these Canaanitish homesteaders, of so mnch of 
his claim as was needed for her grave. This 
shows that the promise of God embraced some- 
thing of more importance than the simple right 
to have and to hold for a brief life time a small 
fraction of God's eminent domain. Abraham 
afterward was gathered to his fathers, and his de- 
scendants eventually went down into Egypt and 
fell into bondage, till Moses, who had fled from 
Egypt, and was keeping the flocks of Jethro, his 
father-in-law, the Midian Priest, was called into 
requisition. He * 'led the flock to the farther side 
of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, 
even Horeb. And the Angel of God appeared 
unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a 
bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush 
burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. 
And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see 
this great sight why the bush is not burned. 
And when the Lord saw that he turned aside 
to see, God called to him out of the midst of 
the bush." I wish to direct your attention to 
the fact that in this passage, the party in the 
bush is at first called an angel, and then it is 
called the Lord, and then God. He after- 
wards saying, '*I am the God of thy father, the 
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God 



54 

of Jacob." He is still the angel, and simply an 
angel. But he introduces hiniself in this way 
in order that Moses may be certain as to who 
it is that is speaking to him. He is not nearly 
so much of a hair-splitter as Earth's modern 
theologians, or he has made an entire trinity of 
an angel in the different names he has assumed 
in this place. *'And the Lord said, I have sure- 
ly seen the afflictions of my people, and I am 
come d©wn to deliver them out of the hand of 
the Egyptians. Come now, therefore, and I will 
send thee unto Pharoah, that thou mayst bring 
forth my people, the children of Israel, out of 
Egypt-" And after much argument, but no 
force, Moses was induced to go back to Egypt. 
After performing many signs and wonders be- 
fore the eyes of the emperor, and afifllcting his 
people with fearful plagues, he, with the chil- 
dren of Israel, and much Egyptian wealth, began 
their march to the promised land. Before they 
had gone far, however, great difficulties were en- 
countered, and on the fifteenth day out, **the 
whole congregation of the children of Israel mur- 
mured against Moses and Aaron." And said 
unto them, ''Would to God we had died by the 
hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we 
sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread 
to the full; for ye have brought us forth into the 
wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hun- 



55 

ger." Thus their complaining began, and went 
on from bad to worse. As they journeyed, 
"there was no water for the people to drink. 
Wherefore, the people did chide with Moses, and 
said, Give us water to drink. And Moses said 
unto them, Why do ye chide with me? Where- 
fore do ye tempt the Lord.? And the people 
thirsted there for water. And the people mur- 
mured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is 
this, that thou hast brought us up out of 
Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle 
with thirst.? And Moses cried unto the Lord, 
saying, What shall I do unto this people.? They 
be almost ready to stone me." Thus their dis- 
content and perversity grew till God said to 
Moses, *'This is a stiff-necked generation." I 
cannot perform my oath to Abraham through 
this people. I will therefore destroy them all, 
and will raise up a nation to you, and perform 
my oath to Abraham through you and your 
children. But Moses dissuaded God, and said 
that to destroy the people thus would be a re- 
proach among the heathen, who would say God 
had attempted to bring these people into the 
promised land, but was unable to do it, and so 
had let them all die in the wilderness. Then 
God replied virtually this: Then Moses, go 
down to this people, and explain to them the 
situation, show them the impossibility of my 



56 

giving to them the land unless they will do as I 
vvant them to do. So, Moses went down and 
upbraided the people, and told them that God 
thought to destroy them. Then asked the people, 
What does God want.^* Let him tell us, and we 
will do it. *'And Moses came and called for the 
elders of the people, and laid before their faces 
all these words, which the Lord commanded. 
And all the people answered together, and said^ 
all that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And 
Moses returned the words of the people unto 
the Lord." Thus, the foundation was laid for 
an agreement which was entered into by and 
between the Lord as the one party, and these 
people as the other party. This was a simple 
agreement, as between two equals. God agree- 
ing to guarantee these people against famine and 
pestilence, against war and nakedness, against 
sickness and sorrow, in short, against every 
possible evil, and to give to them the land. The 
conditions on their part being, that they would 
do what he required of them. This was a grand 
offer, and as soon as they could grasp it, they 
with one accord, shouted, "All that the Lord 
hath spoken we will do." Moses then proceeded 
to lay before them the ten commandments, 
"Thou shalt have no other God before Me, 
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven im- 
age, or any likeness of anything that is in 



57 

Heaven above, or that is in the Earth beneath, 
or that is in the water under the Earth," and so 
on. When they heard this recital, they thought 
that would be very ca^sy to do, so they all went 
into this agreement with allacrity. But it 
seems to have occurred to some of them, that 
there was a bare possibility, some might not 
perfectly keep this agreement; and, knowing 
that their right to ownership in the promised 
land depended on their keeping this agreement, 
they naturally wanted some assurance that those 
who did keep the agreement should have the 
land, and that those who did not keep it, 
should not have the land to the exclusion of 
those who did. A question naturally arose 
as to how the offenders should be kept out, 
if there were ar^^ offenders. It was plain that 
a man could not Kve on the land without occu- 
pying it. So, if he lived at aU he must keep 
this agreement. It was, therefore, further 
agreed that only those who kept the agreement 
perfectly should have the land, and those who 
did not so do must die in order to keep them 
off the land, that the rightful owners mi^kt have 
it. This having been fully arranged, and 
pledges entered hnto on both «des, God being 
pledged to give to every •ne who kept the 
agreement his rtghtf«4 share of the land, and de- 
stroy the life of every one who did not keep the 



58 

agreement, Moses went up onto the mountain 
to get the agreement written on tables of stone, 
so it might be preserved. He was gone forty- 
days, and, on his return, the Lord said unto him, 
*'Go, get thee down; for thy people which thou 
broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have cor- 
rupted themselves. They have turned aside 
quickly out of the way which I commanded 
them, in which they had agreed to go. They 
have made them a molten calf, and have wor- 
shipped it, and sacrificed thereunto, and said: 
These be thy gods, O, Israel, which have brought 
thee up out oi the land of Egypt." And the 
Lord said unto Moses, "I have seen this people, 
and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now, 
therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax 
hot against them, and that I may consume them.'' 
(^And I will everlastingly dafmi their immortal 
souls, and punish them endlessly in a lake that 
burnetii with fire and brimstone .^ Oh, No! 
He did not say that. It is entirely too modera. 
God had not yet thought of that. It woiild be 
bad enough to consume ttiem, and, indeed, en- 
tirely too bad for the little mistake they have 
made, 'in doing here what they had been accus- 
tomed to doing all their lives before without so 
much as hearing that it was wron§p Their cir- 
cumstances now, however, had changed. They 
had agreed to forever forsake idolatry, and hckd 



59 

bound themselves under an oath, and had 
bouad God under an oath to destroy the life of 
every one of them that did not keep the agree- 
ment. And, now, with God under this oath» 
how could he fail to consume them? But con- 
suming does not mean to imprison and punish, 
so, it is plain that the idea of an immortal soul 
and of future punishment was, as yet, unknown 
to God. ''And I will make of thee a great na- 
tion." But, * 'Moses besought the Lord, his 
God, and said. Lord, why doth thy wrath wax 
hot against thy people, which Thou hast brought 
forth out of the land of Egypt with great power 
and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should 
the Egyptians speak and say. For mischief did 
He bring them out to slay them in the moun- 
tains arui to consume them from the face of the 
'SAtthf TiirAfrom Thy fierce wrath and repent 
of this evil against Thy people. Remem- 
ber Abraham, Isaac and Israel, thy ser- 
vants, to whom Thou swearest by Thine own 
Self, and ssiidst unto them, I will multiply thy 
seed as the stars of Heaven, and all the land 
that I have spolien of will I give unto your seed, 
and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord 
repented of the evil which He thought to do 
un%o I^s people." **As soon as Moses came 
nigh urito the camp he saw the calf and the 
dancing, and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he 



6o 



cast the tables out of this hands and break them 
beneath the mount." As Moses approached 
the camp of the rebellious Israelites, after his 
conversation with God, and saw what God had 
seen from the mountain top, he suddenly- 
realized the awful enormity of ^he sin which the 
people had committed. It dawned upon his 
mind all at once that there existed *an awful 
agreement between the people and God, by the 
terms of which God was solemnly bound to de- 
stroy every one of those who had broken that 
agreement. He saw also that they, every one 
of them, had broken it, and, though he had 
seemed to have prevailed upon God to suspend 
the execution of the sentence for a short time, 
he saw nothing to do but "to consume them 
from of the face of the Earth." The thought of 
their utter annihilation so overwhelmed him, 
that he threw down the tables of stone and 
broke them to pieces. Indeed, thought he, 
what is the use of an agreement which has been 
broken before it could be recorded on stone for 
preservation.? Then he fell on the ground and 
lay their forty days more before eating, drink- 
ing or noticing anything. Moses himself thus 
relates the matter: "And I took the two tables 
and cast them out of my hands, and break them 
before your eyes. And I fell down before the . 
Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; 



6i 



I did neither eat bread nor drink water, because 
of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wick- 
edly in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to 
anger. For, I was afraid of the anger and hot 
displeasure wherewith the Lord was wroth 
against you to destroy you. But the Lord 
barkened unto me at that time also." God had 
said, ''Let me alone, that I may destroy them 
and blot out their name from under Heaven; 
And I will make of thee a nation, mightier, and 
greater than they." And thus, through the 
seed of Moses, who was a son of Abraham, God 
would perform his oath to Abraham. I deem it 
unnecessary to quote further at this time. It is 
obvious that a condition of things existed which 
demanded an entire change of plan. The bar- 
gain was broken, God was sworn to destroy all 
these people, including Moses; for, though 
Moses had not been involved in idolatry, still his 
other acts were sinful, and the agreement simply 
meant that every beneficiary of it must keep 
himself entirely free from sin. That is, he must 
do nothing that would cause death. So, Moses 
could not enter the promised land for, if he was 
guilty of one sin, he was in the same condemna- 
tion as though he was guilty of all. The peo- 
ple were now under condemnation, not by the 
Immutable decree of a vengeful God, but as the 
result of their own volition, by their own free 



62 



will and choice. So far as God was concerned, 
there was nothir.g arbitrary about it. It was 
purely a matter of business, simply and solely an 
agreement made and entered into by and be- 
tween two parties acting on a perfect equality, 
the one with the other. The idea that God as- 
sumed any rights or claimed any special -privi- 
leges as accruing to him because he was God, is 
not true, nor is it sustained by the record. 
There is one fact in connection with the record, 
to-wit: It was purposely so written that it 
would admit of a meaning bei-ng given it that 
should suit every condition of human prog- 
ress. Thus, the Israelite should be able to get 
just such an understanding of it as would make 
Judaism; the early Christians should deduce 
from it their faith; the Dark Ages should do the 
same; the Reformers and the Puritans should 
findtheir creeds in it, and later on, another and 
different interpretation should be given it. Any 
one should see that when the author, God, be- 
came the expounder. He was by no means a 
strict constructionist. Impartial justice in con- 
nection with the execution of a perfectly free 
and untrammelled agreement was all God sought 
and, as a just being, He could accept no less. 
For, if only ten of these people had kept the 
agreement, God would have been bound to re- 
move all the rest so the ten might come into 



6.? 

possession of all the land; and there was no 
way to remove them but to consume them. 
There were not ten of them who had kept the 
agreement; there was not one of them who had 
done it. Yet, God was bound to give the land 
to Abraham's seed for an everlasting possess- 
ion. Here was a dilemma. God had two oaths 
out, one was to destroy every one of these peo- 
ple, the other to give to them the land for an 
everlasting possession. How could both of 
these things be done.'* We now behold Moses 
arising from his forty days trance, bewildered 
and confounded. He approaches the Almighty, 
wondering that the decree of extermination has 
not been executed. He sees the people are still 
alive, and he addresses the Father about on 
this wise: I now realize the situation. I see 
the people are all under condemnation, but, 
were it possible, I would gladly plead their 
pardon. I know, however, there are no condi- 
tions which will admit of pardon, so I am wholly 
at a loss to know how Your oath to Abraham is 
to be fulfilled after all his race have been anni- 
hilated. God replied, That oath to Abraham 
shall be fulfilled. Heaven and Earth shall pass 
away, but that promise shall never pass away 
till it is performed. And now, Moses, I will 
tell you how I will do both of these things. My 
oath to these people does not fix any time when 



64 

I must destroy them; so, I will let them wander 
around in the wilderness for forty years, by 
which time they will aft be dead. In the in- 
terim another generation will come upon the 
stage of action and, possibly, some one of them 
will perfectly keep the agreement. If so, when 
he is thirty years old I will give him the whole 
land, and he shall be the only owner. Yet, to 
as many of the people as will acknowledge h>m 
as the sole owner, to them will he give the same 
benefits they would have enjoyed if they had 
kept the agreement themselves. "If any shall 
not hear him, I wiU require it of tliem." In this 
connection you shall prepare a whole system of 
laws, types and shadows that shall be enforced 
till some one of Abraham's seed shall perfectly 
keep the law until he is thirty years old, and he, 
having thus fulfilled the law, it shall pass away. 
But ,,not one jot or tittle of the law shall in arvy 
wise pass till all be fulfilled." ^'Thiflk not that I 
came to destroy the law or prophets; I came not 
to destroy, but to fulfill." While there is a most 
marked distinction between fulfilling the law and 
destroying it, the effect is just the same. The 
law having been made simply to perfect one 
individual whose perfection should be estab- 
lished by his keepiiig the law till he was thirty 
years of age, it would cease to be of any use as 
a law after it had perfected that one man. 



6s 

Since, ''under the law no flesh could be justified," 
it would be extreme folly to keep in force a law 
for an impossible purpose; and, while most of 
the provisions of the law are great moral princi- 
ples which must be observed by every person 
who would do at all right, yet, there is a great 
difference between a great moral principle's be- 
ing observed simply because it is right, and the 
same principle's being embodied in a law with 
the death penalty attached to any violation of 
it, no matter how sraall that violation. So, when 
any one of the descendants of Abraham should 
succeed in strictly obeying the provisions of 
the law in every particular, for thirty years, 
that person would be a perfect man, and one 
perfect man must be developed before there 
could be more than one. The design was to 
produce a whole race of perfect men, and that 
design will be most effectually carried out. Per- 
haps you are ready to say it is coming about 
very slowly. It is coming about just exactly in 
the time and in the manner in which Infinite 
Wisdom knew that it would come about; and, 
however impatient man may be with what he 
may term a slow process, it is entirely satisfac- 
tory to God, Who knows that the greatest pos- 
sible results are being reached.? The entire in- 
telligent universe will know it in due time, and 
appreciate it, and they will mightily exalt and 



66 



honor an-d glorify and praise and adore His 
matchless name for the inconceivable grandeur 
of this most consummate and astounding 
achievement. The name of God and His Christ 
"shall be exalted above every name." Oh! what 
a thought that I, even I, may be a part of that 
Christ. Yet, this glorious opportunity is still 
open to every one inhabiting the Earth who may 
think that an eternity of Godhood. That a 
chance, — nay a certainty — of reigning as a king 
in the eternal kingdom of God, while endless 
eternity shall roll on, is a matter of more im- 
portance than to indulge in the trivial folly of 
Earth for a few hours. All would, did they 
fully comprehend this, abandon their vanities, 
and give their attention to securing the king- 
dom while yet the opportunity shall last. 
"Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for verily 
I say unto you, many shall seek to enter in and 
shall not be able, when once the Master has 
risen up and shut to the door." There will be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth" when men real- 
ize that the opportunity is gone, and they are 
fated to take a back seat. While a back seat 
will be immeasurably better than they had hoped 
that Heaven would be, if they get it, yet, how 
unpleasant to have to take a back seat, when 
one could so easily have had the best. "Eye 
hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath it 



67 

entered into the heart of man to conceive the 
Slory that awaits the saints." One moment of 
that existence would be worth world's of the 
Earth's present happiness; and yet, behold, how 
the people cling to the hell they exist in and 
wonder where hell is, and what will be their 
awful doom there. They think it strange that 
man could be doomed to a worse condition than 
he has made himself to occupy in the present 
world, but, if he so much likes his present hell 
that he is unwilling to do aught to destroy it, 
how could he complain if it is continued for his 
benefit in the next state of his existence. The 
world must know that wherever there is sin, 
there is sorrow; and, if man would avoid sorrow, 
he must avoid sin. We will return now to the 
story of Moses. I said that to as many of the 
people as will acknowledge Him, the Messiah, 
sole owner, to them would he give all the bene- 
fits they would have enjoyed if they themselves 
had kept the law, for this agreement by mutual 
consent became the law. The law, however, 
was made to apply to the nation, not to indi- 
viduals only, and God dealt with the nation. 
To derive the benefits offered, it must be 
accepted by the nation and strictly observed by 
each individual beneficiary composing the na- 
tion. This important fact you must keep in 
mind to enable you to understand what other 



68 



wise would seem God's strange dealings with the 
people. To get some idea of the benefits to be 
derived from acknowledging Him as the sole 
owner of the land, and all on the land, we re- 
count all the promises of God found in all the 
Old Testament; also all the curses and denunci- 
ations leveled against sin. Every punishment 
escaped was as a much a blessing as was every 
happiness enjoyed. ''But it shall come to pass, 
if thou wilt not harken unto the voice of the 
Lord thy God, to observe to do all His com- 
mandments and His statutes which I command 
thee this day, that all these curses shall come 
upon thee, and overtake thee. Cursed shalt 
thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in 
the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy 
store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, 
and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy 
cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed 
shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed 
shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord 
shall send upon thee cursing, vexation and re- 
buke, (The Lord sends no trouble on any one^ 
except such as would inevitably come from the 
acts of that one in violating the laws of nature. 
When it is said. The Lord shall send, it would 
be equally proper to say. The effect will be. 
So, you are to understand all the curses in these 
denunciations. The object in threatening them 



69 

was to keep the people from doing the things 
that would produce such consequences.) in all 
that thou setest thine hand unto, for to do, un- 
til thou be destroyed, and until thou perish 
quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doing 
whereby thou hast forsaken me. The Lord 
shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until 
He have consumed thee from off the land whith- 
er thou goest to possess it. The Lord shall 
smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, 
and with an inflamation, and with an extreme 
burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, 
and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee 
until thou perish." Thus, denunciation is heaped 
upon this people in the manner described in 
the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy. Blessings, as 
great in their goodness as the others are ex- 
treme in their badness, are promised to the obe- 
dient. I do not wish to rehearse the whole 
chapter, nor more of the Bible to show the 
great and unspeakable blessings promised, nor 
the dreadful curses to be escaped by obeying 
the law or by accepting the righteousness of the 
one who should obey it. Every conceivable 
blessing would be secured, and every conceiv- 
able curse would be escaped; even by those who 
were already under condemnation. He who 
would obey the law would not be under con- 
demnation, but he would have power to relieve 



70 

any and all who should believe on him, from any 
and every curse by which they might be afflicted. 
That is, he vvould become the sole owner of the 
land, and of the life, and he could give the land 
or the life to any who should believe on him, in 
the nature of things, however, he could not give 
either land or life to any who did not believe he 
owned them; for, it is plain that, before you can 
accept a piece of property from any one, you 
must believe he owns it. If you receive from 
one what you do not believe he owns, you are 
accepting stolen goods, and yon cannot do that 
without participating in the larceny. Thus, you 
would believe the giver to be a thief, and be 
willing yourself to receive the stolen goods. 
Hence the necessity of believing; for, if the 
party you believe in be an impostor, you can 
still be honest; on the contrary, if the party in 
whom you do not believe, be honest, and you 
take property of him which you do not believe 
he owns, you are yourself a thief. This cannot 
be done with God. The people, all of them 
had broken the law. Before any good could 
come to them from the agreement, somebody 
must keep the law, get the property and dis- 
tribute it to them. Hence, came the promise of 
a Christ. This Christ would be the the first son 
of Abraham who should perfectly keep the law, 
fulfill it, and let it pass out of existence: for as 



71 

soon as any one should fulfill the law, that mo- 
ment would be the end of it. Therefore, ^'Christ 
was the end of the law for righteousness to all 
them that believe." "Having abolished in his 
flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments 
contained in ordinances; for to make in him- 
self of the two one new man, so making peace,* 
"Blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances* 
(Namely, the whole written law, and fulfilling 
every condition, being a perfect, and complete 
Savior,) that was against us, which was contrary 
to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to 
his own cross." The law was made and agreed 
to, a system of types, shadows and sacrifices 
was arranged, all pointing to the Messiah, who 
was promised and prefigured in the fiery ser- 
pent in the wilderness. It is true that promises 
difficult to understand had before been made of 
the purpose of God to save the race by means 
of a Savior. "The seed of the woman shall 
bruise the serpents head." That might be un- 
derstood to mean that the whole race would be 
employed to do it. . Also, in Isaac there was a 
type of Christ, a son being slain by his father as 
a sacrifice. The system of sacrifices was not 
new. Moses did not introduce an entirely new 
religion, but simply engrafted such amendments, 
as it were, as were rendered necessary by the 
then condition of the race. Never before, how- 



72 

ever, had any penalty been fixed for the viola- 
tion of any law. Even at this time, the promise 
of a Messiah was but meagerly set forth, as be- 
fore, only to pave the way for a more full devel- 
opment of God's great purpose. He furnishing 
the light, or adding to his promises at each 
time, only so much as the demands of the oc- 
casion required; so leaving the people to depend 
on the law for their salvation, and leaving them 
to hope that each male child might be the 
Messiah. What an inducement to carefully 
rear their boys! Alas! to rear boys, living in 
Satan's kingdom, so as to make perfect men of 
them, has been found an utter impossibility. 
The Christ having been thus vaguely promised, 
time went on. The Israelites failed to keep the 
law, and every plague and curse threatened fell 
upon them, not all at once, nor all on one man; 
but all on the nation before its extinction. At 
last after centuries of war and strife, of famine 
and pestilence, of liberty and captivity, of pros- 
perity and adversity. Thus, all of this went on, 
not simply and solely to establish the fact that 
there could be no salvation by law, though that 
was one object to be gained. It was primarily 
to perfect the human race, or raise it to a con- 
dition where a second Adam could be produced, 
and where it should be possible for him to live 
long enough to teach the people a system of 



73 



salvation by grace, through faith in him as thsir 
Messiah, and thus ''abolish the law of ordinan- 
ces, nailing it to the cross," and making the offei 
to give the property without price to every one 
who should believe he owned it, and be willing 
to accept it. The world had advanced through 
centuries till it had reached the great era of Ro- 
man civilization, and, in the blaze of that era of 
light, there was born at Bethlehem, in the land 
of Judea, the infant Jesus. "And the child grew 
and waxed strong in the spirit, filled with wis- 
dom, and the Grace of God was upon him." 
Now, his parents went up to Jerusalem every 
year at the feast of the Passover, thus carefully 
fulfilling the law, although the law really to be 
fulfilled was the ten commandments, since they 
were all the law there was when the great rebel- 
lion of Aaron and the people took place in their 
worship of the molten calf. The ten command- 
ments was the law to be fulfilled, and to pa'ss 
away when fulfilled; that is, as a law with pen- 
alty attached. The great moral principles of 
the commandments, as principles of right and 
to be carefully observed as such, are as durable 
as eternity. Under grace, there can be no other 
than the moral penalty for their violation. Now, 
when Jesus was thirty years old, in the autumn 
of the year (for Jesus was born during the month 
of October or late in September) he appeared 



74 

at the river Jordan where John, whose ministry 
had begun in the spring before, and who had 
then been preaching six months, was baptizing. 
Jesus, as any other unknown and unimportant 
person, at last approached to be baptized. John 
knew him as the great Messiah whom he had 
been preaching, and hesitated about baptizing 
him. But Jesus answering, said, "Suffer it to 
be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill ALL 
righteousness" — not some righteousness. Now, 
John realized that there was no need of one who 
was the perfection of righteousness, to submit 
to the forms by which sinners manifested their 
repentance, pledged themselves to righteousness, 
and sought to be initiated into the Kingdom of 
Righteousness, about to be set up in their midst. 
And yet, a thing so out of place and so unim- 
portant as it must have seemed to John, Jesus 
would not omit, for thus he must fulfill all right- 
eousness. When Jesus had been baptized, he 
went up straightway out of the water, and, lo! 
the Heavens were opened unto him, and he saw 
the spirit of God descending like a dove and 
lighting upon him; and a voice from Heaven, 
saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am 
well pleased." The crisis had been reached and 
safely passed; the law was fulfilled, and Jesus 
had God's receipt in full. It only remained now 
for God to fulfill his part of the agreement, and 



75 

turn over to Jesus the property. But a difficulty 
arose. The property, — namely, the land and all 
there was on the land was in the hands of men ; 
who claimed it as their own. It must be got out j 
of their hands before it could be given to Jesus, j 
There was one of two ways to get this property: \ 
either the people must be induced to freely give ' 
it up and universally acknowledge Jesus as the 
sole owner of it all, or measures must be taken 
that would compel its surrender. God's oath 
was on record, unconditionally, to give this 
property to Abraham and his seed after him, for 
an everlasting possession. Heaven and Earth 
shall pass away, but this oath of God could 
could not pass away unfulfilled. The property 
must be turned over to Jesus, the rightful and 
only owner whom God could recognize. So, 
like this, we find Jesus coming to the Father 
and saying, "Father, I have your receipt for ser- 
vices rendered, and your oath that these. ser- 
vices shall be paid for in the property of this 
Earth; and, as I am now ready to enter into my 
inheritance, will you kindly deliver the property 
to me.?" The Father replied, "My Son, all you 
say is true, and the property you shall have; 
but, with your consent, seeing the property is 
now in the hands of all the inhabitants of the 
Earth and I do not desire rashly to evict them, 
1 will propose that we allow them three and a 



half years grace in which to make up their 
minds whether they will freely give up the 
homestead, or whether I shall be compelled to 
remove them by force." ''Very well, Father," 
said the Son, "1 shall always be glad to further 
Your wishes in every possible way. I only want 
the farm so I may renovate it, clean it up, put it 
in perfect order, and so return it to the people 
a paradise for their future home." "Certainly, 
certainly. My son," returned the Father, "I un- 
derstand, but the people do not. They have 
possession of the property. You may find some 
difficulty in inducing them to recognize your 
claim. You may go forth and exert your power 
to convince this nation and, if you succeed, you 
will have your property immediately on its sur- 
render by them. But, if they will not surrender 
the property, then there is but one thing to do, 
and that is to let the wrath to come fall upon 
them and consume them from off the land, as I 
thought to do in the wilderness. I will say, 
however, that in anticipation of the difficulties 
before you, John has already prepared the way. 
His cry has been heard as he preaches in the 
wilderness of Judea, and saying. Repent ye, for 
the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. O, gener- 
ation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee 
from the wrath to come." (The wrath to come 
here spoken of was the destruction, utter and 



77 



complete, of every one who refused to yield up 
the property which God was bound to turn over 
to the Christ.) So, Jesus went forth and sought 
to convince the people. Of course, in his king- 
dom there could be none of the sorrow, none of 
the sufferings, which had been pronounced upon 
those who should violate the law, and under 
which the nation had groaned ever since its ex- 
istence began. All those woes must be removed. 
The Messiah must be able to remove them. If 
Jesus could not do this, he was no Messiah. In 
order then to establish his Messiahship, he must 
set about removing all these evils. According- 
ly, they brought unto him those afflicted with 
every conceivable form of disease, and he healed 
them all and turned not one away empty. To 
show that he could establish life on Earth, he 
raised the dead; and thus, for the allotted time, 
he continued his glorious ministrations. When 
the time had expired, of course, all the people 
were convinced, and brought all their deeds and 
mortgages, and all their bonds and their bank 
stock, their legal tenders, their silver and gold, 
their horses, their cattle, their sheep, their fowls, 
their household and kitchen furniture including 
the parrot and the cat, so that they had nothing 
whatever left, and Jesus graciously took it all, 
and said, * 'Thanks, gentlemen, thanks." And 
now, having all the property and all the people 



78 



a most loving, loyal and obedient lot of subjects, 
he, of course, had nothing left to do but to as- 
cend the throne at Jerusalem, dismiss the Ro- 
mans by just simply saying to Pilate and Herod 
that he had no further need of their services. 
And he, seated on the throne of his father 
David, begin his glorious reign, which reign 
could never end; for he was without sin, and 
without sin there is no death. '*He shall be 
great, and shall be called the son of the Highest, 
and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne 
of his father David, and he shall reign over the 
house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there 
shall be no end." Thus the paradise of God was 
set up, and all the people were saved. Hold! 
Let me see. Is this digression a dream.-* Surely 
it was not that way. No, no; it was not that 
way, but it ought to have been, and it would 
have been so, but this was the devil's- kingdom. 
He could not induce Jesus to fall down and wor- 
ship him, even for the whole kingdom, so he 
had no idea of giving it up in any such way as 
that. The devil, taking him up into a high 
mountain, showed him all the kingdoms — all 
the kingdoms — of the world in a moment of 
time; and he said unto Jesus, all this power will 
I give thee, and the glory of them, for that is 
delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I 
%\VQ it. If thou, therefore, will worship me, all 



79 

shall be thine. And Jesus answered, and said 
unto him, -'Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is 
written. 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, | 
and Him only shalt thou serve.' " It has some- ' 
times been thought that Satan had no claim to | 
the kingdoms of this world; but if that were true, ' 
Jesus should have known it, and his all-suffi- 
cient answer would have been, "Thou dost not 
own these kingdoms, and thine offer is no temp- 
tation." It would be no temptation to offer to 
buy a person with property you do not own. 
But the Savior made no such answer, which 
makes the inference inevitable that he regarded 
Satan's claim as being too well founded to be re- 
futed by argument, and so he, at least tacitly, 
admits Satan's claim, and answers him in such 
way as would admit of no dispute. It would 
convince Satan, however, that he could not be 
swerved from obedience to what was written. 
Thou shalt not live by bread alone, but by every 
word of God. That is, under the law, implicit 
obedience was the source of life; and while he 
could live without bread, he could not live with- 
out obedience. To return to the work of Jesus. 
His three years and a half, the time allotted, in 
which to convince the people of his right to the 
property, had about expired, when a young 
Israelite, holding a commission in the Roman 
army and having exalted aspirations, heard that 



8o 



the.re was a man going abont the country preach- 
ing and attracting great attention by the won- 
derful cures he was performing on the affiicted 
people. Seeing a man returning from one of 
those mass meetings, which had become so com- 
mon as the Christ traveled about, he accosted 
him in the following language: 

"Well, my friend, I suppose you have been 
to the great gathering which I learn took place 
in the neighborhood of Jericho?" 

*'Yes, sir, I have been jammed around 
sometime in the immense throng that follows 
that wonderful teacher. It is the most surpris- 
ing of all strange things what vast crowds he 
does dra^?, and how beautifully he talks. Every- 
body hangs with breathless emotion upon his 
words, and a feeling of love and veneration, such 
as man never felt before, pervades his whole 
being and thrills his very soul with an ecstacy 
of delight, until he feels like rushing up to the 
wonderful speaker and squeezing his very life 
our for pure love of him. But just then he will 
say the most disgusting and absurd things im- 
aginable; such as, -except you eat my flesh and 
drink my blood, you have no part nor lot with 
me.' That disgusts everybody but about a 
dozen Gallileans who seem to have unlimited 
faith in him as their Messiah. After watching 
the thing for some time, I confess I do not know 



8l 



what to make of him. He is surely a wonderful 
man, and does perform some of the most sur- 
prising miracles imaginable. There is something 
so unaccountable about him that I am clear off, 
I give it up." 

"Well, sir, I have never seen him, nor heard 
a word of his talk; but I certainly do want to 
see him. I have got on the good side of Jethro, 
the priest down in town, who has charge of the 
sacred oracles there belonging to the Syna- 
gogue. I have had access to the Prophets Isaiah 
and Daniel, and I have been studying them 
with great care to see whether this man's pre- 
tentions did agree with what these prophets said 
the Messiah would be; and, I find very astonish- 
ishing coincidences between the prophetic 
record and what I hear of this ma». My curi- 
osity is greafeiy aroused, and I have tried every 
way to g«t a leave of absence from the army for 
the pupipose of seeing him while he is in the neigh- 
borhood. It is not my turn to get a pass, and 
there is an unearthly prejudice against a Jew, 
anyway, and the officers seem to fear that 
trouble may arise, as they have a dread of our 
people and are expecting to see open rebellion 
break out at any moment, so that the idea of a 
soldier ki the Roman service wanting to go to 
see this religious impostor or lunatic, for such 
they look upon him as being, is too absurd for 



82 



anything. Yet, I am bound to see him; and 
the more I investig^ate, the more I am deter- 
mined to satisfy myself whether he is the Mes- 
siah or not. Did you ever hear him say he is.**" 

**I never did. He is the most mysterious 
man that was ever seea. He is the smoothest 
tempered, mildest spoken, meekest looking, th^e 
most pleasant, pleasing, smiling, loving and lor- 
able person that ever did liye, yet he is oniy a 
common carpenter, — a good workman I am told. 
He learned his trade under Joseph, who by the 
way, some awe saying is not his father; so there 
is a mystery about his birth. Well, well, it is 
all mystery of mysteries. As I said beiore, I 
give it up." 

Well, now, look here. I have here a copy 
of a part of the prophecy of Daniel. Nobody 
ever saw a stranger writing, it puzzled me so 
when I first read it that if the book had not been 
so sacred and so valuable, I would have thrown 
it down and never picked it up agaii*. But, 
verily I had to leave a mighty big deposit with 
the reverend Jethro to get to take the book 
away, and then, I am not allowed to tell any 
one I have it; for, if that should come to the 
ears of the elders or scribes, they would Fflise 
trouble with the priest for renting me the book. 
So, I take it, you will be very careful to say 
nothing of what I have told you. As I was say- 



83 



ing, I have made a copy of a part of Daniel and, 
also, of Isaiah. I want to show you this copy, 
and see whether you think I have got at any- 
thing like its meaning. Now listen: *'And he 
informed me and talked with me and said: O. 
Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill 
and understandings At the beginning of thy 
supplications the commandment come forth; and 
I am come to show thee, for thou art greatly be- 
loved, Therefore, understand the matter and 
consider the vision. Seventy weeks are deter- 
mined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, 
to finish the trangression and to make an end of 
sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring 
in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vis- 
ion and prophecy, and to annoint tne most holy. 
Know, therefore, and understand, that iirom the 
going forth of the commandment to restore and 
to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah, the Prince, 
shall be seven weeks and three score and two 
weeks. The street shall be built again and the 
wall, even in trowblesome times." Now, I have 
thought that these must be weeks of years; that 
is, they represent as many years as there are 
days in that many weeks. 

**I think that is correct, for our priest has 
given that subject much study for many years, 
and I remember to have heard it so explained 
long before this man came into notice." 



84 

*'WelI, then, here are seven weeks and sixty- 
two weeks, making- in all, sixty-nine weeks, this 
being equal to four hundred a«d eighty tkree 
days or years. But, as to what decree is re- 
ferred to, I am a little m doubt. It seems tkat 
Cyrus made a decree to build the temple, but 
this speaks of biiilding Jerusalem, and does not 
me»iioii the temple. At another time, years 
afterwards, Artaxerxes made a decree to build 
the walls of the eity, and it seems Ihat is most 
likely to be the decree referred to. I am not 
well enough supplied with books of dates to en- 
able me to be certain, but tWs appears to have 
been about four hundred eighty two years ago^ 
That comes within one year of the time named 
by the prophet when certain great things are to 
happen. Now, if this person is not the Messiak, 
then there can no Messiah come in the time. 
Hence, the iiit«rrpr«lat«oa is wrong, or the Mes- 
siah is neaUy here." 

''Well, if he is here, this man Jesus must be 
the man. It certainly looks as if he was. Sup- 
pose now, he has come, and this man really is 
he." 

''Why, we are on the very verge of the 
greatest events that have ever occurred in the 
world's hfstory, or indeed, ever will occur. 
Think of the Messiah's kingdom about to be 
set up in our midst; think of the Roman legions 



8S 

scattered to the four winds, — but hush! be still! 
Someone might have heard that, and then, off 
goes my head. They will brook nothing now 
that looks like treason, and anything is treason 
if they don't like a fellow, and they will make 
very short work of him if he happens to be one 
of those despised Jews. So, I have to be very 
careful. Well, I am getting very tired of this 
endless espionage, and I long for liberty. Oh! 
that this may be the Messiah . I would enlist 
in his army as a private without pay, and take 
my chances for promotion, before I would stay 
in a Roman legion, even if they would give me 
command of the legion, I hope, however, for 
something better than the ranks. I am a thor- 
ough drill master, a perfect disciplinarian, and I 
am certain that, as soon as this Jesus shall get 
acquainted with me, he will reco^ize my worth 
and give me a commission fully as high as the 
one I hold now in this army." 

*'I do not doubt it. I do not see how his 
kingdom is to be set utp without a^n army. To 
think that the Romaws will go quietly away, and 
let him set up a government here, is Ronsense. I 
tell you they will- do no such thin-g. " 

"No, the style of miracles wrought in 
Joshua's time must be repeated, and old Rome 
must be made to howl before such a kingdom 
can be made to succeed. Of course, all he can 



86 



do by preaching around the country is to make 
himself popular. Then, he may do some secret 
organizing, and quietly get things into shape, but 
of course he will need some money." 

"These Galileans, who stick so close to 
him, are simply poor fisherman who must either 
beg or fish; and, as they cannot fish while fol- 
lowing him around, they necessarily depend for 
subsistance on what the people will give them. 
They have a sorry time of it, at times, even 
going among the Gentile dogs and Samaritan 
curs to eat. Oh! there are some strange things 
about this person, both in his talk and in his 
actions. At one time he feeds thousands of 
strangers from almost nothing; and, at another, 
we find his Galileans so hungry that, even on 
the Sabbath day, they gather wheat in their 
hands in the open field, and eat it raw." 
"They must have been very hnngry." 
"And, when they are reproved for taking 
the wheat on the Sabbath day this man defends 
them by claiming that, as David unlawfully and 
on the Sabbath day ate the show-bread in the 
tabernacle when he was hungry, therefore, these 
Galileans may, with impunity, go into any man's 
field, trample down his grain and eat all they 
want of it, even on the Sabbath day. And all 
because they were hungiy. Now, I should like 
to know what would become of the rights 



87 

of property if that kind of thing is to 
be tolerated? He justifies their breaking the 
Sabbath also by claiming that he is Lord of the 
Sabbath. That is just equivalent to saying that 
he can abolish the Sabbath; and that, if he gives 
yo« a sort of indulgence, you will be under no 
obligation to keep the Sabbath at all." 

• ''That's right. That's right. That shows 
he is a man of sense. The greatest trouble our 
people have ever had to contend with was their 
superstitious dread of breaking the Sabbath. 
Our armies have stood still on that day and let 
the enemy get every advantage of them; and 
thus, the most ruinous defeats have befallen us. 
I would not, for one moment, think of going 
into his service if he should follow that old re- 
ligions prejudice. We can't do anything with 
the Romans in that way." 

"Well, here again is another absurd and 
foolish idea. He said to Nicodemus on one oc- 
casion, 'Except you be born again, you cannot 
inherit the kingdom of God.' " 

"Of course, that was a stumper for this an- 
cient philosopher and teacher, who thought that 
what he did not know was not worth knowing. 
How on Earth an old man could be born again 
certainly was entirely beyond his ken." 

"Well, yes, that did bother the old gentle- 
man for awhile; but, he went to work with his 



88 



accustomed diligence, and he never gave up till 
he had fully mastered the matter. He reasoned 
this way: If the statement is true, it is a fact 
in nature; it is not true solely because Jesus says 
it. All there is of it, is this: If he has made a 
discovery of a. natural truth that I hadnotf©und 
out, I ought to be able to prove it, and if it is 
the truth, I can prove it. If it is not the truth,, 
then he is an imposter, and has given me the 
key to prove him such. So, Nicodemus got 
right down to business on this plan, and, being 
something of a philosopher, he soon solved the 
mystery to his own entire satisfaction." 

•'You do not meain that the old philosopher 
became a believer in Jesus, as the Messiah, by 
solving this second birth mystery philosophically 
do you.-*" 

•'That is exactly what I mean; and the old 
gentleman was so elated over his solution that 
he hurried over to explain it to me. He did 
not dare say a word about it to those old big- 
gots of Rabbis who are associated with him." 

''Well, if any man can explain that impos- 
sibility on philosophical principles, I will give 
him credit for beiiig a deep thinker. But, as 
you say, he ran over to you to unburden his 
mind of the mig^hty load of discovery. Perhaps 
you remember enough of liis talk t-o throw a 
little light on the subject." 



89 

"Yes, I have thought it over often since, 
and it has had the same effect on me that it did 
on old Nicodemus. It did more to make me 
think this must be the Messiah, than even his 
miracles has done." 

**Give me the clue; I am all impatience." 

''Well, Jesus said, 'Except ye be born 
again, ye cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 
Now, a kingdom is certainly a species of property, 
and one inherits only the property of his own 
father. Certainly the kingdom of God must be 
the property of God, and no one except a son of 
God could inherit God's property. If I had been 
born a son of God in the first place, I should 
have inherited His kingdom without having to 
be born again; but not having been born a son 
of God, I must be so born before I can inherit 
his property." 

"So far, so good; but please to tell me how 
you are going to be born again." 

"Well, Jesus explained that, so when it is 
understood it is very plain. He said, 'That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh,' and that 
'That which is born of the spirit is spirit.' God 
is spirit; I am flesh. My father was flesh, my 
mother was flesh, so I am flesh, because I was 
born of the flesh. If my father had been spirit 
and my mother had been spirit, then I had 
been spirit, because I should have been born o^ 



90 

the spirit. If I were spirit, 1 could not be flesh, 
for one cannot be both flesh and spirit at the 
same time. Now, there are two worlds: First, 
the flesh world; second, the spirit world. We 
know that the natural way to get into the flesh 
world is to be born into it. God Himself could 
not get into it in any other way. Then, why 
not understand that the same natural law pre- 
vails with reference to the spirit world, and that 
the only way to get into it is to be born of 
the spirit into that world. Again, my natural 
or animal spirit, while it is not immortal, is ca- 
pable of being the mother of an immortal spirit; 
and, if God be the Father of it, it will be immor- 
tal; and not only immortal, it will be a son of 
God, and as such will be born at the resurrec- 
tion to life. That is, this body dies, and is 
buried; and out of it (if God be the Father), is 
born an immortal spirit. This spirit is like unto 
the angels, Jesus says; and it is in the image of 
God, because it is a son of God, and is, therefore, 
capable of inheriting his kingdom." 

"I must confess that certainly solves the 
mystery thus far to my entire satisfaction; but 
there yet is a difficulty. He said you must be born 
of the water, as well as the spirit." 

*'0h, well, that is an easy one. That is an- 
Earthly matter; it takes place right here before 
our eyes, we cannot help understanding that." 



91 



'*We will suppose we can't. Why do you 
not throw some light on the subject instead of 
taking so much time to tell me how easy it is to 
do?" 

*Well, please give me a chance. Born out 
of the water, baptised in the water, buried in 
the water, and born out of the water. It is the 
resrruection from the water, as the second birth 
is the resurrection from the grave. The one is a 
type of the other. The burial and resurrection 
in baptism is simply the initiatory rite by which 
you are to start on the road to the burial, and 
resurrection to a new or spirit life as a Son of 
God. It is just as necessary to start by being 
born out of the water as it is to stop by being 
born out of the grave. The end of the birth 
could not be reached without it had a beginning/ 

'•Well, that settles it. If I knew when you 
would get a leave of absence I would like to go 
with you to Jesus. When I left the crowd I had 
given up all idea that he could be the Messiah, 
but this talk has changed my mind greatly. If 
you get a commission as a general, and I believe 
you will, I certainly want to go along on your 
staff. I would be a live soldier and don't you 
forget it. Good by, good by, and success to you. 
Keep me in mind. I would take a place on 
your staff with the rank of colonel, in anticipa- 



92 

tion of an early promotion. Good by, and God 
speed you." 

*'What a wonderful difference a little per- 
sonal interest makes in a man's ability to under- 
stand a matter. For example, my friend Grasp- 
all there, with an important office, and a good, 
round salary looming up in the prospective, can 
readily understand the most difficult problem. 
Before these objects were descried, the simplest 
proposition was wholly beyond his ken, but I 
never dreamed that he possessed any military 
aspirations. I thought his sole ambition was to 
absorb everything in sight. It may be that his 
avaritious soul can see more in the army of the 
Lord than he can in precarious speculations, and 
so it is with him, as it is with me, simply a mat- 
ter of sheckles. Funds and fame, cash and 
character, that is all, but I am wonderfully hon- 
est to acknowledge it, even to myself. Let me 
see! I am bound to see this great Master, and 
I am bound to do it very soon. I could never 
get a pass to go, and I will never ask for one 
again; but I will go just the same. A general 
who has not an element of strategy in his make 
up, would not be worth a denary. I expect to 
be a general, and I might just as well begin to 
develop a penchant for strategy now as at any 
other time. Let me see; yes, now I have it. 
I'll fix the old commander. I'll take the surgeon 



9e 

and my orderly into ray confidence. I will shut 
myself up in my quarters, and they shall say, 
He is somewhat indisposed. That will be true, 
for I shall be somewhat indisposed to report for 
duty that day. They shall give out that my 
sight is afflicted, not seriously, but I must be 
kept in the dark for a day or two and no one al- 
lowed to see me but the surgeon, and being thus 
locked up (in their imaginations), I shall be safe. 
The surgeon will of course visit me two or three 
times a day, to administer to my wants and re- 
port my condition. His story will sufficiently 
account for my absence from parade. In the 
meantime (and I hope it will not be a very mean 
time), I will skip out early in the evening, and, 
by traveling all night, I shall get into the neigh- 
borhood of the Master by morning. I shall get 
a square breakfast, clean myself up, and get into 
shape for the interview which I shall have as 
early as possible in the morning. That shaU 
determine my future actions. If I find every- 
thing as I hope I shall, and the Master is ready 
to take me into his service immediately, and wil 
give me a position such as will suit a young man' 
of my means and military ability, I will at once 
accept it. My orderly may open my quarters 
on the third day and and announce that I have 
skipped out. It will then be a simple case of 
desertion. I will be under the immediate pro- 



P4 

tection of the Master, and, I take it, he will 
know how to protect me, or he would not allow 
me to enter his service. But, if things are found 
different from what I should like, then I will re- 
turn the next night, and a little peper, or onion 
juice, put into my eyes the next morning, will 
sufficiently inflame them to prove that I have had 
a serious time with them; and all will move on 
till the proper time shall come." 

Having thus laid his plans he proceeded to 
carry them into immediate execution. Shortly 
thereafter there approached Jesus one who said 
unto him, ^'Good Master, what good thing shall 
I do that I may have eternal life (have a com- 
mission in your army?) Jesus said unto him, 
< Why callest thou me good? (A little flattery 
goes a great way among office seekers.) There 
is none good but one, that is God. But, if thou 
wilt enter into life (my service),- keep the com- 
mandments." ''He salth unto him, 'Which.^' " 
Jesus said, "Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt 
not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou 
shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father 
and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself." The young man said unto him, 
''All these things have I kept from my youth up; 
what lack I yet.-'" Here he expected to be asked 
as to his military training, being in his uniform, 
that he was a Roman officer could not escape the 



95 



Master's observation. As Jesus could expect 
very few followers from the Roman army, it was 
reasonable to suppose that this man's military 
training and abilities would be of first impor- 
tance to the new king. But, to his profound 
astonishment, his wonderful accomplishments 
as a tactician and stratagist, were wholly ignored, 
and the most surprising, nonsensical and absurd 
of all propositions, was embodied in the Master's 
response. *'Go and sell that thou hast and give 
to the poor, and come and follow me, and thou 
shalt have treasures in Heaven." 

If a bolt of lightning from a cloudless sky 
had struck him, it could not have surprised him 
more. "Treasures in H-e-a-v-e-n, Heaven, — it 
is treasures on Earth I'm looking for," thought 
he. ''Give to the poor, the poor, what an idea! 
Why, the man must be crazy. If he had said 
go sell all you have and bring one-half the 
money to be used in arming and equipping an 
army of soldiers, of whom you shall have the 
command, and bury the rest where you will be 
sure to find it when the Roman ajmy is driven 
into the sea, I would gladly have done it. But, 
excuse me, please. I have no money for the 
poor. I'll hie me back to camp, and I'll stay 
there, thanking my stars that I hid my 
tracks so well that even my orderly has 
no idea where I went. But, this man, this 



96 



wonderful man, he ought to have been the 
Messiah. There can be but one opinion as 
to what he is, and even his devoted Gali- 
leans will be compelled to see it, and to desert 
him. I wonder he did not commend me to a 
dish of his flesh and a bowl of his blood. Won- 
derful man, surprising man! If God has any- 
thing to do with him, it must certainly be agreed 
that His methods are mysterious and His ways 
past finding out. Good-by, all my .dreams, 
good by, Kingdom of David." 

Now, when the disciples observed the young 
man withdraw, with an elongated visage, they 
naturally turned to the Master to see what effect 
it would have on him. And Jesus said to his dis- 
ciples, *'A rich man shall hardly enter into the 
Kingdom of H^eaven. And again I say unto you, 
it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of 
a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the 
kingdom of God." And that came near being 
the last straw on the camel's back. The proph- 
esy of the young man, that they would find him 
out and desert him, came very near being ful- 
filled at that moment instead of a little later, 
when they all did desert him. "When the dis- 
ciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, 
saying, 'Who then can hold office in God's king- 
dom.'" Jesus said, ' 'With men this is impossible* 
but God will find no difficulty in conducting the 



97 

affairs of his government without rich men." 
Then said Peter, we have forsaken all and fol- 
lowed thee through all these years with no place 
to sleep, no certainty of anything to eat. We 
have suffered every inconvenience for what we 
expected to get in the kingdom; and now, by 
this saying all our hopes are blasted. There are 
John and James whose mother has already been 
soliciting the highest ministerial places for them. 
Of course, we thought there was policy in de- 
clining to assign them to the best places till 
things should take a shape that would make it 
necessary to appoint all the officers of the gov- 
ernment. Then I was in favor of determining 
each man's place by lot, leaving the Father thus 
to indicate his pleasure, which I supposed, was 
what you meant when you said these places 
were not yours to give, but the Father would 
give them to those best fitted to fill them. 
*And now, what shall we have therefore." And 
Jesus said unto them, ''Verily, I say unto you, 
that ye which have followed me in the regener- 
ation, when the son af man shall sit on the 
throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
thrones governing the twelve tribes of Israel." 
Here, he located their reward among the glory- 
fied saints in Heaven, showing that he had 
abandoned all idea of any Kingdom of David at 
this, or at that,time. It must not be supposed 



98 



that, because the Kingdom of David would not 
be set up at that time, it never will be. Goa's 
oath to Abraham will certainly be fulfilled. But, 
this promise was made only to the twelve, and 
for the comfort and assurance of all others he 
says, **And every one that has forsaken houses, 
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or 
wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, 
shall receive a hundred fold, and shall inherit 
everlasting life. This made it still more appar- 
ent that the kingdom will be set up on the Earth, 
and that men women and children will people 
it. But there will be no rich man in it, neither 
will there be any poor man in it. All will be 
equally rich, and all will be equally poor. 

I remember that you corrected my remark, 
in answer to your question, as to whether or not 
I had as yet seen any one in hell. I said I had 
not been in hell. You corrected my statement, 
or proposed to do so. Now, I am at a loss to 
know in what particular my statement was in- 
accurate. Will you have the kindness to throw 
a ray of light on your meaning? 

With much pleasure. Your assertion that 
you had not been in hell of course grew out of 
the fact that you did not know when you were 
in that awful habitation. To determine whether 
you have been there or not, perhaps we would 
better determine where hell is. "For if God 



99 

Spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them 
down to hell, and delivered them into chains of 
darkness to be reserved unto judgment," etc. 
From this it appears that Satan Avith the other 
angels that sinned were cast down to hell, and 
confined there in chains of darkness. Now, 
those angels are certainly in hell, and hell must 
certainly be where they are. So, if we find 
them, or any of them, we will certainly find 
hell. For example, if it be affirmed that Jeffer- 
son Davis is confined in chains in Fortress 
Monroe, and we find Davis in chains, we cer- 
tainly have found the fortress also. Therefore, 
to locate hell it is only necessary to find where 
Satan is. When we first hear of him he is in 
Eden. Eden is on the earth. Next we find 
him interfering with Job, and on being asked 
whence he c^me, he replied, from walking to 
and fro, up and down in the Earth. We find him 
with the Savior in the wilderness, and on the 
mountain, claiming the kingdoms of this world 
as his own. ''And the Devil leading him up 
into a high mountain, showed him all the king- 
doms of the world in a moment of time. And 
the Devil said to him, All this power will I 
give to thee, and the glory of them, because it 
has been delivered to me, and I give it to 
whomsoever I will. If thou therefore wilt wor- 
ship me, all shall be thine." Here we find Satan 



lOO 



claiming the kingdoms of Earth as his kingdom. 
If he had had no right to them the Savior's all- 
sufficient answer to him would have been; 
''Satan, you do not own these things; they be- 
long to God, therefore you cannot give them to 
me. It is no temptation to offer me what does 
not belong to you." But it is clear that Satan's 
right to these kingdoms is exactly the same as 
any man's right is to his farm. The temptation 
was as great as the offer of any man's property 
would have been. Satan claimed this as his 
kingdom, and the Savior did not dispute his 
right to it. Again, Satan taketh him up on the 
pinnacle of the temple. Jesus says, **I saw Satan 
as lightning fall from Heaven." In all this time 
Satan is on Earth, and said to be in chains of 
darkness — in hell. So, you will clearly see 
that Earth and hell are the same. Again, Jesus 
speaks of him as the God of this world, the 
father of the Jews. Peter says he goes about 
as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, 
of course of people on Earth. He is called the 
prince of the powers of the air, by Paul. As 
he is always found on Earth when he is in hell, 
it is perf%ctly plain that his kingdon, Earth, and 
hell are all the same place; or that the home of 
men, or of the wicked, is the only place there is 
where intelligent beings are in hell, or where 
there is suffering. Remove wickedness and you 



lOI 



remove hell. Abolish sin utterly, and you 
abolish hell utterly; and the great work of 
Christ and his gospel is to do this and bring all 
the intelligent universe into harmony with God. 
Not to fill up an eternal hell with suffering souls. 
but to abolish suffering by abolishing sin. The 
grave is called sheol, hades, or hell; but those in it 
are dead, and as "The dead know not anything," 
the dead do not suffer, the living only can suffer. 
The Bible does not teach, either the immortality 
of the soul or the immortality of suffering. It 
does teach that "man is mortal," and that in a 
state of death he is just the same as any other 
animal. "For that which befalleth the sons of 
men, befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth 
them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other. Yea, 
they have one breath (spirit), so that a man hath 
no preeminence above a beast." "He is like the 
beast that perisheth." "For there is no work, 
nor devise, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in hell 
(the grave, or sheol), wither thou goest." 
While dead, or in the grave, there is no know- 
ledge; one must be resurrected after death before 
he knows anything. There are two resurrections. 
The first, of which Christ was the first fruit, that 
Of the saints. This has been going on ever since 
Christ arose from the dead, and is contiduous 
while the gospel lasts. All who are saved un- 
der the gospel are like unto the angels, immortal 



lOi 



spirits, being in the image of God. They are 
God, being sons of God. They, as it were, grow 
up to be what their Father is. This is natural. 
Every offspring grows up to be what its father is. 
If the parents be sheep, the offspring is a slfeep. 
If the parents be horses, the offspring grows up 
to be a horse. If the parents be persons, the 
offspring grows up to be a person. Also, if the 
parents be spirits, the offspring is a spirit; and 
if the father is God, so is the son. Thus the 
first resurection produces Saints, or Gods. The 
second resurrection is to judgment, and those 
who rise in it are not, saints and never will be. 
They must be judged according to their deeds; 
for, not having accepted salvation by grace, 
through faith, there is nothing left but to get it 
by works, or not at all. It is much easier to take 
a thing very hard to get, as a gift, than to try to 
earn it. But the gift of eternal life cannot pos- 
sibly be earned. God alone can confer it 
through Christ. It is worth more than all else 
in the universe. Men have but one possible 
chance to get it, and that chance is nearly gone. 
If you follow Christ in the regeneration you will 
have part in the first resurrection, and will be 
like unto the angels, being glorified, immortal 
spirits. This resurrection takes place immedi- 
ately after death, and there is no condemnation 
(judgment) for those in Christ, those who have 



103 



part in the first resurrection. » "Strive to enter 
in at the straight gate," the first resurrection. 
Take no chance on any other. *'For many shall 
seek to enter in, and shall not be able, when 
once the Master has risen up and shut to the 
door." You will see that, as you lived on earth, 
while sin prevailed there, you have lived in hell 
all your life. If you will now look down upon 
Earth and behold the human race writhing in 
pain and suffering, you will say they have no 
rest day nor night; and the smoke and their tor- 
ment you will see rising up for ever and ever. 
That is, continuously day and night, during 
both the evers of Earth's wicked history, that is, 
in the world that was, and the present wicked 
world. But when sin shall end, these evers will 
end also, the smoke will end, hell will end. and 
the devil will end, as a devil. Death will end, 
life will be universal, and happiness will be 
endless and boundless in God. All will be in God, 
and God will be in all, and all will be God. The 
universe will be made of God. There will be 
nothing in it but God, for all there will be in it 
will be God, I shall be in it, you will be in it, 
and all the myriads of the Earth's redeemed shall 
be in it. There will be nothing In all universe 
of God, but God. No, nothing else, all God. 
Now, if you can understand and believe that, 
then your mental development has made some 



I04 

progress. Such expressions as, "Heaven and 
Earth shall pass away," "tiie end of the world," 
etc., simply means the eradication of evil, the 
end of sin. A new Heaven and a new Earth 
imply the universality of God set forth above. 
The universal absorption of all things in God, 
or the perfect and loving obedience of all intel- 
ligences to God, so that He shall be all in all. 
That they may be one, *^even as I and Thou art 
one." As Christ and God, the Father, are one 
so shall all the intelligent universe be one. 

Does that mean there will be but one indi- 
vidual in all the universe.-* 

Certainly not; it has nothing to do with the 
individual. It is a oneness of will and of way. 
All seek the same objects. All are one in pur- 
pose. As an army is one, so are these one. 
God the Father is a separate individual from 
God the Son. God the Comforter, or Paraclete, 
who has no existence yet, is another separate 
individual or being. That is, he has no exis- 
tence as a person. He has the same existence 
as Christ had before he was born. Christ was 
not a person before he was born of Mary. A 
person is one of the people who inhabit the 
planet Earth. The comforter will be a person, 
a man, whom God will prepare and fill with the 
holy ghost (spirit), and he will lead you into all 
truth by preaching it and teaching it as any 



105 

individual would do. He will be the first to 
proclaim the everlasting gospel. These three 
persons are as separate and distinct as to the 
individuality of each as any other three persons; 
and yet, they are all God, and there is but one 
God. This may be illustrated as follows: 1 
hold out two pieces of money. Are they two 
silvers.? No; they are two coins, but only one 
silver. There is, therefore, only one silver, no 
matter how many coins it may be divided into. 

As I have understood you, there is no 
place of suffering for men except on Earth and 
during their lives there. Now, I do not grasp 
the harmony between that statement and the 
facts recorded in the parable of the rich man 
and Lazarus. There, the rich man is shown to 
have died, to have been buried, and being in 
in hell, he pleaded for only a drop of water to 
cool his tongue, which was denied him. Yet, 
he was dead, and in hell, and his suffering must 
have been most excruciating. Will you please 
show the harmony between that and your state- 
ment, so I maybe able to see it.? 

I think I shall encounter no difficulty in 
rendering the meaning of that parable so plain 
as to make you see that it perfectly agrees with 
my statement; that in the world only do men 
suffer for sins committed in the world. They 
suffer all that justice demands, and sometimes a 



io6 



great deal more, besides missing all the bliss of 
a saint's eternal Heaven. To understand what 
is meant by a parable, or, rather, what a para- 
ble means, we must be able to so analyze it as 
that we can tell juat what each of its characters 
represent, as well as the lesson it is designed to 
teach. The Savior gave the rule for explaining 
a parable in his exegesis of the parable of the 
sower and the tares. ''Why speakest thou unto 
them in parables.!*" Because, ''unto you it is 
given to understand the mysteries of the King- 
dom of Heaven; but to them it is not given." 
Their minds were not sufficiently developed to 
admit of their carefully, candidly, dispassionately, 
and without prejudice, considering the matter 
for the purpose of getting the exact truth; 
hence, they were left in their delusion, allowed 
to believe a lie and lose the advantages of 
knowing the truth. It will always be so with 
those who know more, before they learn any- 
thing, than a philosopher could teach them. 
Beware of the folly of refusing to be taught. 
The reason of the Savior's being compelled to 
resort to parables, was that if he had attempted, 
to any extent, to tell the plain and unhidden 
truth, he would have been stoned or otherwise 
killed before his mission was completed. An 
example of this is found in Jesus' return to 
Nazareth, "where he had been brought up. As 



I07 



his custom was, he went into the synagogue on 
the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And 
there was delivered unto him the book of the 
Prophet Isaias. And when he had opened the 
book, he found the place where it was written, 
'The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He 
hath annointed me to preach the gospel to the 
poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken- 
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives^ 
and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at 
liberty them that are bruised, to preach the ac- 
ceptable year of the Lord.' And he began to 
say unto them, 'This day is this scripture ful- 
filled in your ears.' " Now~has arrived the long- 
looked for time; that glorious day when the 
Great I Am will perform for all his long-waiting 
people the gracious promises which, in His 
loving kindness and bountiful goodness, He 
made to our father Abraham and the mighty 
Moses, and which He hath promised by the 
mouth of all his holy prophets since the world 
began. And now, my dear friends and breth- 
ren, as you hope for the freedom and happiness 
His loving kindness must bring to all His loyal 
and obedient subjects, let me entreat, let me 
beseech, let me implore you with all the fer- 
vency, with all the earnestness, with all the 
love, with all the sincerity with which God 
Himself would plead with you, to forsake all 



108 



your sins, to turn away from every evil thought. 
With all the solemnity of Earth's dread condi- 
tion before your eyes, with the certainty of the 
impending wrath of God hovering over you, let 
me beg of you to flee from the wrath to come. 
Be wise in the precise moment of time. 
Now is the accepted time, now is the day 
of salvation. Hear me, O, my people, hear 
me! Come ye, come all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest. Come ye, and buy milk and wine 
without money and without price. Come unto 
me, all ye sons of Isreal, and be ye saved, Be 
freed from all your sorrow. ''And all bare him 
witness, and wondered at the gracious words 
which proceeded out of His mouth. And they 
said, 'Is not Uus Joseph's son.?' And he said 
anto them, 'Ye will vurely say unto me this pro- 
verb: Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we 
liave heard you did in Capernaum, do also here 
in thy country. And he said. Verily I say unto 
y^ou, no prophet is accepted in his own country, 
[ tell you of a truth, many widows were in Isreal 
in the days of Elias, when the Heavens were 
shut up three years and six months, when great 
famine was throughout all the land, but unto 
none of them was Elias sent, but unto Sarepta, 
of Sidon, unto a woman of Canaan, a widow. 
And many lepers were in Isreal in the time of 



109 



Elisha, the prophet, and none of them were 
clensed, but Naamen, the Syrian, was cleaned 
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard 
these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, 
and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto 
the brow of the hill, whereon their city was 
built, that they might cast him down headlong. 
Now, what was there in this peaceful talk to ex- 
cite the vengeful ire of these old neighbors of 
his who, a moment before, hung in rapturous 
delight on the gracious words that proceeded 
out of his mouth? Why this sudden and awful 
change? Would such a thing occur in this age 
in the most enlightened and Christian country 
on Earth? I opine not. Should a public speak- 
er contrast the goodness of God to a heathen 
Chinee, with his negligence of American Chris- 
tians, saying, of a truth a Chinese leper was 
healed, but no American leper was noticed, 
would such a statement turn a congregation of 
American worshipers into a howling, murderous, 
mob, who, demented with fury,would seek to kill 
the speaker, and compel him by a miracle to save 
bimself? No, no; far from it. On the other 
and, they would quietly thank God that though 
ihey were unnoticed, the Chinaman had been 
lealed. This shows the wonderful development 
in mental progress the race has made under the 
influence of the gospel. And we see that, while 



no 



Jesus must present the great truths of his sys- 
tem for the good of future generations; he was 
compelled to so cover them up in parables that 
the people could scarcely get a hint of what He 
meant. To you it is given to know the mysteries 
of the Kingdom of Heaven. And to you I give 
this key to enable you to understand a parable. 
Change all the figurative names to their right 
names, or, call each object by its right name, 
and the parable becomes at once, either a matter 
of plain history, or prophecy easily understood. 
In the explanation of this parable the Saviour 
gines the right name to each character, and when 
this is done the meaning is rendered very plain. 
In order then to understand any of his parables, 
it is necessary first to find the right name of 
each of its characters, and he who does not do 
that will fail to correctly explain them. Behold 
the illustration the Savior gives! They said, 
Declare unto us the parable of the tares and the 
field. He said, He that soweth the good seed, 
is the son of man. The field is the world. The 
good seed are the children of the kingdom. The 
tares are the children of the wicked one. The 
enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harv- 
est is the end of the world, and the reapers are 
the angels. This then is the story of the para- 
ble: Christ sowed truth in the world. The 
devil sowed error. They both are left together 



Ill 



till deatn separates them. Now let us apply this 
rule and illustration to the parable of the 
rich man and Lazarus. ' 'There was a certain rich 
man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, 
and fared sumptously every day. And there 
was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who was 
laid at his gate full of sores. And desiring 
to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the 
rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and 
licked his sores. And it came to pass that the 
beggar died, and was carried by the angels into 
Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and 
was buried; and in hell (hades the grave) he 
lifted up his eyes, being in torment, an seeth 
Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom; 
and he cried and said. Father Abraham, have 
mercy on me; and send Lazarus, that he may 
dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my 
tongue, "for I am tormented in this fiame. But 
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy 
life time receivedst thy good things, and like- 
wise Lazarus, evil things; but now, he is com- 
forted and thou art tormented. And, beside 
all this, between us and you there is a great gulf 
fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to 
you, cannot; neither can they pass to us that 
would come from thence. Then he said, I pray 
thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send 
him to my father's house, for I have five 



112 



brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest 
they also come into this place of torment. Abra- 
ham saith unto him, They have Moses and the 
prophets; let them hear them. And he said. Nay, 
father Abraham; but if one went unto them 
from the dead, they will repent. And he said 
unto him, If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither will they be persuaded through 
one arose from the dead." Now, who was this rich 
man.? Who was this Lazarus.? What the gate? 
What the sores.? What the crumbs.? What the 
table.? What the dogs.? What Abraham's bo- 
som.? What was hell.? What the torment.? What 
the finger.? What life time.? What good things.? 
What was Lazarus' evil things.? What the 
gulf.? What his father's house.? What his five 
brethren.? If this is a parable, every one of 
those names is fictitious, and to understand the 
parable we must change them to their right 
ones. Let us see if this can be done so as to 
leave no doubt as to its being right. It is said 
of the rich m.an, that he was dressed in purple 
and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. 
We must discover him from this description. 
The purple was the royal robe worn only by 
kings and rulers; so this man must have been a 
ruler of seme kind. But the fine linen was the 
emblem of purity, and did not belong to kings. 
So he was not a king. If I were to say, there 



113 



is a certain rich man who is clothed in purple, 
etc., and wears a three-crowned hat, almost 
any one would at once recognize the Romish 
pope as the man, since he is the only man to 
whom that description would apply. And, as 
the Jewish high priest was the only one to whom 
Christ's description would apply, we, in like 
manner, see in him the ' 'certain rich man." 
The description of his dress was simply the 
description of the sacred robe of the high priest, 
made of purple and fine linen. This tends to 
show that his religious system was meant, and 
not the man himself. The name Lazarus, litter- 
ally inte' preted, means "Immanuel, or, God 
with us." He died, was raised from the dead, 
and carried to (Heaven) Abraham's bosom 
This could be none other than Jesus. He was 
dispised, killed, raised from the dead, and car- 
ried to Heaven, the only example of that kind 
in human history. The parable enables us to 
see that individuals were not meant. Certain 
characters are set up as the representatives of 
religious systems. The rich man was Judaism. 
The poor Lazarus was the dispised Christianity. 
The object of the parable was to contrast these 
two systems; to show to the Jew what Judaism 
was — a great and royal system — affluent and 
powerful. Also what Christianity was, to the 
eyes of the Jews — a poor, miserable beggar, full 



114 



of sores (foolish ideas as doctrines), lying at 
Judaism's gate, begging for entrance, or for the 
crumbs that fell from its table. Then, he showed 
them Judaism, writhing in the torments of 
persecution, and looking afar off and hoping 
and praying for their long looked-for 
Messiah whom, by faith, they saw in Abraham's 
bosom, this same despised Lazarus, but they 
knew it not, whom long years before they had 
crucified. And they prayed he might be sent. 
There was the great gulf of time between them 
which must be passed before their prejudices 
could be so overcome as to make it possible for 
the truth to reach them. The gate was Jewish 
prejudice. It must be passed before entrance 
could be gained, and they must get over it be- 
fore they could enter anything else. The sores 
they saw all over this wretched Lazarus as they 
beheld him, were the absurd stuff Jesus taught 
for doctrines and the Jews anathematized. 
The precepts of Moses, which Jesus acquiesced 
in as taught by the Jews, were the crumbs. 
What was the table.^ Simply the law of com- 
mandments. The dogs were the Gentiles or 
Samaritan followers of Jesus, always considered 
dogs by the puffed-up Jews. These Gentile 
dogs licked the sores of Lazarus by accepting 
his teaching, by believing the doctrines the 
Jews rejected, by being special champions of 



115 



these absurdities. Abraham's bosom, Heaven, 
or the high plain of the Christian church as 
compared with the helpless, persecuted and 
ruined condition of Judaism. Hell here meant 
the suffering of the Jewish people from the time 
of their rejection of Christ to the time of their 
deliverance, when the gate would be thrown 
open, the gulf of time passed, and Judaism and 
Christianity should drop their prejudices, aban- 
don their errors and unite in Christ as the Lord 
of all. Flames of torment were their sufferings 
by war and persecution, which the soul of their 
religion was to endure. That is its spirit, or 
life continued, while its outward forms were 
dead. While they should have no apparent 
access to God, their temple gone, their 
nation gone and themselves scattered to 
the four winds, with no certain abiding 
place, no safety, no hope, not even that 
of a drop of water on the tip of Lazarus, 
finger. That is, Christ could be of no possible 
use to them till the gulf of time fixed between 
them should pass away. The finger was the 
hand of the evangelist pointing to Christ. His. 
life time refers to Judaism's history from Moses 
to the destruction of Jerusalem. His good things, 
were the reign of such men as David, Solomon 
and Hezekiah. Lazarus' evil things were the 
abuse and outrage, persecution and death of 



ii6 



Christ and his disciples. The gulf was the timt 
which God had appointed, v/hich must pass be- 
fore the Jews, as a nation, would accept Christ. 
His father's house was the world. Now, this 
rich man had five brethren. He, himself, was a 
corrupt national religion, with a personal head 
as high priest which recognized Abraham as its 
father, and had Moses and the prophets. Now, 
if our presentation is right, his brethren must be 
similar corrupt national religions, living while 
he is dead. To fill these conditions, five such 
national religious bodies must be found, or else 
there must be same of them yet to be devel- 
oped. The first we note is the Greek church. 
This is a corrupt, national religion, with its pa- 
triarch, or head, at Constantinople. It acknowl- 
edges Abraham as its father. The second, the 
church of Rome with the Pope at its head. It 
also claims descent from Abraham. Third, the 
Russian church with the Czar as its head; and 
Abraham for its father. Fourth, the church of 
England with the Queen as its head, it is, also, 
a child of Abraham, and has Moses and the 
prophets. Fifth, and last, it would seem that 
Mormonism is the youngest brother. Here we 
have these five brethren, all descended from 
Abraham, and all destined to meet the same 
fate that has befallen their older brother, the 
rich man, Judaism. For, they have not heard 



117 



Moses nor the prophets to any purpose, and, 
though one did rise from the dead, they have 
not received his word savingly. While profess- 
ing to accept the risen Savior, they are as full 
of corruption as Judaism was. Thus we see 
this parable has nothing to do, either with an 
individual man nor the punishment of him or 
his sou-1 after death. It is a prophecy, showing 
that the proud, haughty system of Judaism 
would "be brought down to hell to the sides of 
the pit," and for centuries should suffer the most 
relentless persecution and torture. To be alive, 
but dead, sticking to their religious conviction, 
ivaiting and watching, hoping against hope, and 
praying to a deaf God to send their long looked- 
:or, long prayed-for, deliverence which, by the 
^ye of faith, they beheld in the person of Laza- 
•us, afar off in Abraham's bosom. That Christ 
:ould predict the dreadful end of Judaism, and 
;he exalted glory which his despised Christian- 
ty should attain to, tracing minutely the history 
)f both through an entire world, is evidence that 
;hould satisfy any candid mind as to his divin- 
ty. Here we see he does this, and in other 
parables he does the same thing over. The 
>tory as thus related in a parable, runs like this, 
briefly told: There was a certain proud, haughty, 
vainglorious religious system, namely, Judaism, 
great and mighty in its own estimation. And 



ii8 



there was a certain poor, despised, disgusting 
sect, Christianity, as estimated by Judaism. 
Now, Christianity was laid in front of Jewish 
prejudice, and, to the Jews, appearing full of 
errors and absurdities. But, Christianity in the 
person of Christ, died. At least, the Jew thought 
it was dead when he saw the lifeless body of 
the Christ hanging upon the Roman cross, for 
he was all there was of Christianity at the 
time. ''For, he trode the winepress of God's 
wrath alone," having been denied and deserted 
by those who had professed to be his friends, 
even his mother so far forgot him that, for her 
safety, and because of her fear, he declined to 
recognize her; giving her away to John, and 
saying, ''Behold, thy mother. He that doeth 
the will of my Father in Heaven, is my 
mother, and sister and brother." Even the 
eternal Father and all the holy angels 
withdrew from him, which facts so oppressed 
him that he exclaimed, "My God, my God, why 
hast Thou forsaken me.''" as though he was un- 
prepared to be left so utterly alone. As though 
he had expected to feel the Father's benign 
presence through this terrible trial and was 
greatly disappointed by the realization that no 
one, not even God, nor his Earthly mother would 
countenance him in this hour of death. But so 
it must be; for he must tread the wine-press of 



119 



God's wrath alone. Ah, how many others have 
been so forsaken for his sake! As I said, in the 
person of Christ Christianity died, and with him 
it was resurrected, and, in the centuries after, 
was exalted to Heaven, absorbing all the great 
nations of Earth. But proud, haughty, aspiring 
Judaism died, in the destruction of their nation 
and temple. That is, the religion died, but the 
Jew, or its spirit, lived on, persecuted, abused 
and driven from place to place in a living hell, 
a flame of torment (but notice, this was the 
living Jew, on Earth, and not the immortal soul 
of a dead rich man), ''was brought down to hell, 
to the sides of the pit." Judaism, while writhing 
in torment, beheld its five brethren, viz: The 
Greek church, the Russian church, the Romish 
church, the English church, and the Mormon 
church, going down to the same fate that had 
befallen it. It sought to avert this calamity by 
persuading the Father to send one Christ from 
the dead to induce them to turn from their 
foHies; but was informed that the most effective 
agencies possible were already exhausting their 
energies for that purpose, and if they would not 
understand Moses and the prophets, they would 
not be convinced though one rose from the 
dead. Nor will anything convince them. These 
people, utterly deaf to any appeal, will inevita- 
bly shut their eyes to reason, and rush blindly 



I20 



on to ruin. Such is the fate that awaits these 
national Christian churches. Blinded by preju- 
dice, swelling with pride, egotism, vanity and 
disgusting arrogance, they are a steneh in the 
nostrils of God, and He will spew them out of 
His mouth. He has virtually done this already. 
The revclator makes plain their true condition 
in his description of the Laodicean church, 
which was simply a description of the last, or 
end of the gospel church. The history of the 
church was divided into seven different periods, 
called by the names of seven different churches 
in Asia Minor, and showing the condition of 
the church in each of these seven different 
periods of its history. The last church de- 
scribed being the last period of the gospel 
church before the judgment church or everlast- 
ing gospel should begin. This lukewarm, proud 
and corrupt charch must be spewed out before a 
perfect condition of things can obtain. 

The unavoidable inference from your dis- 
course is that there is no punishment after death 
for sins committed in the world during life. 
Now, this certainly surprises me, for the most 
effective work I was ever able to do in the min- 
istry, while on Earth, was accomplished by 
forcibly presenting the doctrine of future punish- 
ment, and holding up to the view of the unre- 
pentent the awful sufferings of those consigned 



121 



to eternal torture in a lake burning with fire and 
brimstone. Of course, it was my custom to say 
that no one supposes that this will be a litteral 
lake of fire and brimstone, but the suffering, 
whatever it may be, will be equal to that in 
such a lake. Then, I talked of the ever- 
lasting fire prepared for the Devil and his 
angels. And ''these (the wicked dead) shall 
shall go away into everlasting fire, and there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." I im- 
plored the sinners to flee from the wrath to 
come, before it should be everlastingly too late. 
I pictured the awful suffering in hell, the glory 
of Heaven, and begged them to turn in with the 
overtures of mercy, and seek the salvation of 
their immortal souls. All this I did in honesty 
for years and, at last, I died and awoke in 
Heaven to learn, to my profound surprise, that 
I was wrong in nearly everything I taught, and 
that I had urged the most absurd errors as rea- 
sons for accepting my teaching. Now, I do 
wonder how the scriptures, which I always un- 
derstood to teach punishment after death for 
sins committed during life, can be made to teach 
anything else.^ 

It has been no part of my purpose, in this 
conversation, to assume the functions of a com- 
mutator, and undertake to expound all the 
Bible. That would involve the consuiTk-ption of 



122 



a vast amount of time and talk. My object now 
is only to so far correct your mistakes as to en- 
able you to form a more just conception of the 
exalted and glorious character of the great and 
holy Deity, the gracious Lord God Almighty, 
who is the embodiment and perfection of good- 
ness; to relieve your mind of errors derogatory 
to His'pure, true, holy and exalted character, so 
you would be the better fitted to venerate and 
honor and glorify His great name. But, as you 
especially request it, I will take up a few passa- 
ges and show you how egregiously Earth's great 
expositors have misunderstood them. How- 
ever, before doing so I will call your attention 
to this fact, that of all the writers in the Bible 
a very few have said anything, that could be 
construed as teaching such a doctrine as future 
punishment. Whereas, if it had been known to 
be the true doctrine, it should have been the 
burden of all their talk. Now, I believe eleven 
passages in the whole Bible are relied on to 
prove this doctrine; yet, if it were true, we ought 
to expect to find it clearly stated about as many 
hundred times — certainly several times by every 
inspired writer. As many persons in olden 
times might never have access to more than one 
book of the Bible, if that book said nothing 
about future punishment, how should those know 
anything of the necessity of escaping it.' Let 



123 



us see one of those dreadful passages supposed 
to teach it. "Fear not them who kill the body^ 
but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear 
him who is able to destroy both soul and body 
in heil." This passage is elliptical, and, v/ith the 
ellipsis supplied, it clearly affirms that men are 
able to kill the body in hell, but are not able to 
kill the soul in hell. Thus, "fear not them who 
kill the body in hell, but are not able to kill the 
soul in hell; but, rather fear him who is able to 
destroy both soul and body in hell." They are 
not able to destroy the soul, but God is able to 
destroy the soul in the same hell that men kill the 
body in. If the soul can be destroyed at all, it 
is not immortal. If the soul is not immortal, 
there can be no future punishment, for that is 
simply the punishment, after death, of an im- 
mortal soul. As men killed the body in the 
same hell in which God could destroy the soul, 
it follows that this hell was on Earth, and no 
condition of a future state of existence is re- 
ferred to, 

I never understood this passage taught, 
that the soul was destroyed or punished in the 
same hell where men killed men's bodies; nor 
do I see how this passage is made to teach that; 
if it does teach it then it certainly is a stronger 
argument against than for future punishment. 

By supplying the ellipsis as I have in the 



124 



sentence you will at once see how it teach- 
es that men kill the body in the same 
hell that God can destroy the soul in. Ob- 
serve, the language is: * 'Fear not them who kill 
the body(in hell, Gehenna fire), but are not able to 
kill the soul (in hell); but rather fear him who is 
able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Ge- 
henna fire). Now this hell, or Gehenna, was 
that fire which burned day and night in the 
valley of Hinnom, just outside the city walls, 
and was used to consume the offal of the city. 
It had formerly been called Tophet, and was 
utterly detested by the Jews as a place where 
human sacrifices had been burned on the alter 
to heathen idols. It was this that Jesus re- 
ferred to when he said that men can kill the 
body in this hell, but cannot prevent God from 
resurrecting to life the spirit of such; rather 
fear God, who can also kill the body in this 
same hell and then, declining to resurrect the 
spirit to life, would also destroy the soul. 

Well, well; I never saw it so before. But, 
what about those passages in Revelations which 
say, -'The wicked have no rest day nor night, 
and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up 
for ever and ever." And, "they shall have their 
part in a lake that burneth with fire and brim- 
stone." 

They are very easy to understand, when 



125 



viewed from a proper standpoint. No rest day 
nor night; this is in a world where there is day 
and night. It cannot be in Heaven, for there is 
no night there. It cannot be in hell, for there 
is no day there. It must be on Earth, the only 
place where there is day and night. *'If any man 
worship the beast and his image, the same shall 
drink of the wine of the wrath of God, and he 
shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, and 
the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for- 
ever and ever." Both the Jewish ^2/^r and the 
Christian ever^ or during the Jewish age 
and the Christian age respectively, and that only 
*'And they have no rest day nor night, who 
worship the beast and his image." The beast 
here would mean the Roman church; his image 
means the English church, or, in its widest and 
truest sense. Catholics and Protestants of all 
kinds. Not, that there is not a single one of 
them who has any rest, but, taken en masse. 
They are writhing in torment all the time. Some 
of them are always afflicted with sickness, sorrow, 
pain and woe, so it can be truly said, They 
have no rest day nor night. But this refers to 
any man who worships the beast or his image, 
at the time he is so worshiping. There is no 
man in heaven, it cannot be there. There is no 
man in hell, it cannot be there. Men live on 
the Earth only, and only on the Earth do they 



126 



worship the beast and his image; and only on 
the Earth do they have no rest day nor night. 

It is said this lake of fire is the second 
death; and that must certainly be after they are 
raised to judgment, is it not? 

It is said the beast and the false prophet 
'were cast alive into the lake of fire and brim- 
stone, not that the immortal souls of the wicked 
dead were, for nothing is said on that subject. 
They were cast alive into the lake of fire. How 
ong do you think they would remain alive in 
such a lake? They lived on the Earth, and 
were cast alive into the lake, the lake must be 
on the Earth also. To settle this matter, let us 
see what the beast and the false prophet were, and 
what became of them. Not to be tedious, I will 
say the beast was the Roman religion, — litterly, 
Rome, or the Roman empire. Rev. 13:1. ''And 
I stood upon the sands of the sea, and saw a 
beast rise up out of the sea. having seven heads 
and ten horns, and upon his horns, ten crowns 
This is the empire of Rome, and the system lo- 
cated there is the system called the beast. This 
system, or church, was cast alive into a lake 
burning with fire and brimestone. Suppose now 
that the revelator, who had known of wars car- 
ried on only with slings, spears, darts, swords 
and like arms, was shown a vision of a modern 
battle like Waterloo, the destruction of Moscow, 



127 

or any great modern battle, and heard the sound 
of cannon, the rattle of musketry, saw the flames 
of fire belch forth, the smoke ascend, and 
smelled the burning brimstone or powder. By 
what more appropriate name could he call it than 
a lake burning with fire and brimstone? Such is 
what John saw, and such is what he called it. 
The live beast, the fudal Romish system, was 
killed in this lake during the Napoleonic wars. 
That is what is meant by the beast's being cast 
alive into a lake burning with fire and brimstone. 
It has nothing to do with anything outside of the 
world. The false prophet is the Mohammedan 
system, and its destruction likewise is mostly ac- 
complished by modern warfare. The same fate 
awaits that old dragon, heathenism. This I 
think sufficiently disposes of all that class of 
scripture. 

But why or how can this be called the sec- 
ond death.? 

When so called it is applied to persons. 
**But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abomina- 
ble, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sor- 
cerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have 
their part in the lake that burneth with fire and 
brimstone which is the the second death." 

Why the second death.? 

Let us see. Suppose a person should die 



128 



once; that would be the first death, would i< 
not? 

Most certainly it would. 

Well then, suppose he should die again af- 
terward; that would be the second death, woulc 
it not? 

One would reasonably suppose so. 

Very well. We nowhere read of more 
than two deaths; namely, the spiritual and the 
natural. Now, the Savior said to the wicked, 
*'Ye are already dead, dead in trespasses and 
in sins. If they were already dead, they must have 
died. They had not died the natural death, so 
they must have died the spiritual death; and, 
as they died this death first, it must be the first 
death. So the natural death is the second death, 
or, the lake of fire and brimstone. So it was 
with the beast, so it was with the false prophet, 
so it is with all liars, etc. So it will be with 
death and hell. ^'And death and hell were cast 
into the lake of fire. This is the second death." 
Now, as the second death is the utter extinc- 
tion of life, so it will be the utter extinction of 
death and hell. Hence, this scripture teaches, 
not the eternal 'punishment of men, but the 
eternal extinction of punishment — just the very 
reverse of your understanding of it. 

\ But, are all the passages supposed to teach 
future punishment thus easily shown to teach 



129 



the opposite of it, or the impossibility of it? 

I think these are, perhaps, the most difficult 
to understand correctly of any of them; but do 
not suppose that I have exhausted the evidence 
of this being their true meaning. I have ex- 
hausted the time I wish in this conversation to 
consume on this line of thought. I hope I have 
made the matter sufficiently plain to enable you 
to pursue a further investigation of the matter 
by reference to the Bible. I am satisfied that 
no other subject will so well repay your trouble 
as the pursuit of this theme, basing your inves- 
tigations upon the principles I have supplied you 
with. Of course, as you proceed, very many ideas 
most beautiful and surprising, not set forth in 
this talk, will develop themselves with most 
pleasing effect on your unfolding mind. The 
grandeur and glory of God's exalted goodness, 
the majesty of His gracious presence, the 
boundlessness of His loving kindness, the mag- 
nitude of His plan of salvation, the glory of its 
accomplishment and numerous other great and 
almost intomprehensible ideas and objects of 
His will dawn upon your mind and thrill your 
soul with the ecstacy of delight. I would not 
wise to deprive you of the happiness of making 
the grand discoveries yourself as it were, by 
presenting a fuller and clearer solution of any 
or all of these great questions; but these are ma- 



I30 

ny not touched upon in this conversation wTiich 
might, if deemed desirable, be brought out in 
a future talk. The difference in the 

amount of sin and corruption prevailing in the 
different religious systems of the world is so infin- 
itesimal that, when examined through Heaven's 
microscope, it is found to be wholly imperceptible. 
Hence, that these systems must be utterly de- 
stroyed is as certain as the existence of a just and 
impartial God. Yet, in the Christian system occa- 
sional individuals are found sufficiently void of 
predjudice, vanity, pride, arrogance, egotisrn 
and worldly wisdom to render them capable of 
being recruited for the army of Heaven. So 
far as these great national religious bodies are 
concerned, tlvey are known in Bible language 
as the Dragon, the beast, the false prophet and 
the image of the beast, and are the abomination 
of desolation in the eye of God, and the most 
infernal of all things. These accursed systems 
of diabolism, heresy and inhumanity, demand 
annihilation more than does all other known 
evils, and their fate is as well assured as the 
immutable decrees of the Infinite One can make 
it. Their damnation lingereth not, and their 
eradication of a long time slumbereth not. The 
Savior said, My kingdom is not of this world; 
my kingdom cometh not with observation; my 
kingdom is within you. 



Will you kindly tell me how these texts are 
to be harmonized with the idea that he shall 
have a h'tteral kingdom here on Earth to be io- 
habited by men, women and children, living in 
houses and on lands, earning their living simi- 
larly to what they have always been doing? 
How, under these circumstances, can it be said 
that his kingdom is within the people? 

The kingdom of Christ is the dominion of 
love. When he says, My kingdom is within 
you, he means, When my kingdom exists on the 
Earth its subjects will be so completely filled 
and permeated with the eternal and immutable 
principle of the love of goodness, the love of 
each other, the pure and holy love of God, that 
all indication of government will have passed 
away. There will be no army, there will be no 
navy, there will be no police force, there will, 
in a word, be neither civil nor military officers, 
and no visible government whatever. **My 
kingdom cometh not with observation;" that is, 
it cannot be seen as the kingdoms of men are 
seen. The paraphernalia of government will 
not exist. So, of couse, it will not be seen. 
Everybody will be perfectly good, thoroughly 
honest, stand upon an absolute equality, and 
there will be no need of any government more 
than shall be exercised by the glorified saints, 
who will associate freely with the people, exer- 



132 

cising a watch-care over them that shall secure 
them against all danger; as it were, "bear them 
up lest at any time they dash their foot against 
a stone." That is, the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
the saints will conduct all the government there 
will be, but, as a government it will be invisible. 
The language, ''My kingdom is not of this 
world," simply means that his kingdom is 
of a righteous world, and not of that wicked one 
in which he was then living. That is, it was 
not of the gospel world, or ever; but of 
the world to come, or of the world, 
or ever, which shall come as soon 
as the gospel world has e nded. These worlds^ 
evers, or ages, succeed each other as one day 
succeeds another, and there are three of them, as 
yesterday, to-day and to-morrow. These three 
span the entire existence of mankind on Earth, 
and there is no reason to suppose that his exist- 
ence will ever cease. It would be surprising if, 
after the expenditure of all the force and energy 
required to prepare the Earth for a perfect ex- 
istence, and that perfect existence having also 
been secured by the expenditure of ages of 
time, it should be allowed to be snuffed out like 
a tallow dip. 

Ah! I think that would be surprising, in- 
deed. I have met in my studies of the scrip- 
ture an expression in particular which I never 



133 

could quite satisfactorily understand. I am dis- 
posed to ask you what it means. The passage is 
this: ''That he might be just and the justifier 
of him who believes on Jesus." This seems to 
me to refer to God the Father, and speaks of 
the possibility of God's being just, and yet per- 
mitting the believers in Christ to do a thing 
which they would have no right to do if they 
did not believe in him. But exactly what that 
thing is, or how believing in Christ should enable 
God to be just and permit it to be done, I am at 
a loss to know. 

This is quite easy to understand, but it 
reaches clear back to the beginning of the gos- 
pel system. So, we shall have to go back to 
find its solution. God made to Abraham that 
wonderful oath, "That to thy seed after thee I 
will give all the land thou seest for an everlast- 
ing possession." Now, the Jew verily believes 
that this promise embraces all the descendants 
of Abraham, and that God is bound by it to give 
this land to them. The Christian system taught 
that the Gentile, who was not a descendant of 
Abraham, if he believed on Christ, might take 
this identical land which God had sworn to give 
to the seed of Abraham, and appropriate it to 
his own use without the consent of the Jews; 
and that God could be just, and yet acquiesce in 
(what they call) this robbery. 



134 

How can God be just and justify these 
Gentiles in taking this Jewish property without 
their consent? 

The answer to that is this: The Jews en- 
tered into an agreement with God, the terms of 
which agreement were that they would keep it, 
and, by so doing, take the land; but any of 
them failing therein would forfeit both land and 
^ife to those who should keep theagreement. Now, 
Jesus was the only one who ever kept this agree- 
ment; and by so keeping it, he gained all the 
land, and God gave it to him, and when all the 
property had been turned over to him, he was 
at liberty to do what he pleased with it. He 
pleased to divide it with any or all who should 
acknowledge him as its rightful owner. He 
could give it to no other, nor could any other 
receive it from him, for the plain reason here- 
tofore given. But, it must not be supposed 
that Jesus will give eternal life nor anything else 
to any one who thinks Jesus does not own it, or 
that he has stolen it, Jesus owns this property, 
and God can be just and justify the Gentile 
(to whom Jesus has given this property) in tak- 
ing it. The Jew is mistaken in supposing that 
he, as a son of Abraham, has now any claim 
whatever to this promise of God. The Jew 
failed to keep his agreement with God, for- 
feited his claim, and it went to Jesus. Jesus 



135 



gives it to the Gentile, and the Jew has no 
right to object. Again I say, God can be 
just and justify the Gentile believer in taking 
the property that God had sworn to give to 
Abraham's seed for an everlasting posession. 
This seed of Abraham is the Christ; the land 
and the life are now his, and he gives it to 
whom he will. "For God so loved the world 
(not the Jews) that He gave His only begot- 
ten son that whosoever believed on him might 
not perish, but might have this land and this 
life." 

There is one thing I have been thinking of, 
and should like to ask you about. You have 
frequently spoken of Paradise as. a place yet to 
be developed. Now, there is one passage that 
has led me to suppose that Heaven is Paradise; 
and, that it, of course, always had an existence. 
That passage is the reply of the ever-blessed 
Savior to the thief on the cross: "To-day thou 
shalt be with me in Paradise." How can that 
passage be made to harmonize with the fact 
that there was no Paradise at that time? 

I am glad to see that you quote the passage 
correctly, which you do, except that the word 
*'to-day" belongs to the preceding sentence. 
Jesus said, "Thou shalt be with me in Paradise." 
Earth's people not unfrequently have it, this 
day, "etc. Now if it read the latter way, instead 



136 

of the former, a great difference would be made 
as to its meaning". But by examining the context 
and applying a little common sense, we are en- 
abled to see the meaning. Let us examine 
briefly the statements made by each of the three 
evangelists who refer to this matter. Matthew 
says, "Then were there two thieves crucified 
with him; one on the right hand, and the other 
on the left. And they that passed by reviled 
him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou 
that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in 
three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of 
God, come down from the cross. Likewise, also, 
the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes 
and elders said. He saved others, himself he 
cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let 
him now come down from the cross and we will 
believe on him. He trusted God; let Him de- 
liver him now, if He will have him, for he said, 
I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which 
were crucified with him, cast the same in his 
teeth." Mark's account is very brief, thus: **And 
with him they crucified two thieves; the one 
on his right hand, and the other on his 
left. And they that passed by railed on him, 
wagging their heads and saying, Ah! thou, that 
destroyest the temple and buildest it in three 
days, save thyself; come down from the cross. 
Likewise also the chief priests, mocking, said 



137 



among themselves with the scribes, He saved 
others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ, the 
King of Israel, descend now from the cross that 
we may see and believe. And they, that were 
crucified with him, reviled him." Neither of 
these Evangelist say anything about the repen- 
tance of one of these thieves. It is fair to pre- 
sume that, if there had been very much impor- 
tance attached to this case of death-bed repen- 
tance, it would surely have been noticed by all 
the writers recording the thrilling scenes of the 
crucifixion. Luke is the only one who speaks 
of it; we shall see what he says: ''And one of 
the malefactors, who were hanged, railed on him, 
saying, If thou be the Christ, save thyself and 
us. (And this gives away the animus of the 
whole matter). But the other rebuked him, say- 
ing, Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in 
the same condemnation.? And we indeed justly* 
for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but 
this man hath done nothing amiss." From all 
this it is apparent that, during the hours he hung 
there, he was the object of much ridicule. All 
had their minds impregnated to a greater or less 
degree with the idea of his being the Christ. 
They had no thought that the Christ could die. 
Their idea was that the Messiah would assume 
the throne of his father David, and of his king- 
dom there would be no end. This could not 



138 

possibly be if he could die, or should die. So 
they regarded his crucifixion as a test of 
his Messiahship, and thought if he were the 
Christ he would come down from the 
cross, and thus saving himself, convince 
them, that he was the Christ. Having 
descended from the cross and being accepted of 
all the people, he would imm^ediately ascend his 
own throne, drive out the Romans, and set up 
his kingdom. Those who hoped that he might 
be the Christ, were all anticipation, expecting to 
see Elias come, or else, without Elias or anyone 
else, to see him quietly and majestically descend 
from the cross in such manner as to leave no 
doubt as to his being the Christ. The same idea 
animated the so-called repentant thief. Think 
of the excruciating torture they were suffering 
while hanging there, and know that only one 
wish could spring from that suffering, the wish to 
be taken down from the cross. Neither thief 
nor any one else, had any thought of that kind of 
repentance which the church expects of its con- 
verts. They had never dreamed of such a thing. 
And even if they had thought it, no such repent- 
ance was possible until after the atonement had 
been made by the death of Christ. This feature 
of theology was at that time unknown and un- 
heard of. Hence, this thief had no idea of re- 
penting. Jesus had no idea of forgiving any of 



139 

his sins. But Jesus realized the situation of this 
thief, appreciated the dreadful pain and suffering 
he was undergoing. He did not want to add to 
his sorrow one pang, bat he knew that he had 
made an impossible request. He had said, ' 'Lord, 
remember me when thou comest into thy king- 
dom." He made this request on the supposition 
that Jesus would immediately come down from 
the cross and come into his kingdom. Then the 
Roman authority would cease, and he hoped the 
new government would begin its administration 
by issuing pardons. In that event he wanted 
to be remembered. In other words, his request 
amounted to this: "Now, Lord, you will soon 
descend from the cross, and when you do, your 
authority will not be disputed. Please take me 
down also." All the thief asked for or thought 
of was to be relieved of the excrutiating torture 
he was suffering. Why will not men take a nat- 
ural, common sense view of this thing.? Jesus, in 
the profound compassion of his loving heart, to 
avoid adding one pang to his suffering, gave him 
an evasive answer; one that he could interpret 
to mean just what he wanted it to mean. It 
would leave him in doubt as to whether or not 
he rightly understood it, and leave him to hope 
to be taken down from the cross as long as that 
hope could do him any good. When it could 
do him no more good, as death should wind its 



I40 . 

fatal coil around him, he would then understand 
it as a promise of happiness in a future world. 
And, however he should understand, it would 
confer the greatest blessing on him that Jesus could 
possibly then bestow. Expressed in the lan- 
guage he used, it would be true. Jesus answer- 
ed, ''Verily, I say unto you to-day, thou shalt be 
with me in Paradise." That is, I say, to-day to 
you, truly, thou shalt be with me. Not that Je- 
sus and he would that day go into Paradise. 
Jesus knew there was no Paradise, and He 
knew that centuries must pass before there would 
be one. The thief rightly thought he meant in 
his kingdom by "in Paradise," and the thief 
earnestly hoped he might not be mistaken in 
thinking that Christ's kingdom would immedi- 
ately appear. It would seem unnecessary to 
multiply words to show that these are the facts 
in the case. However, we will look at what 
became of them, and see how far off the 
truth the commentators have been. The 
day ended at sunset. In the evening be- 
fore that time, Jesus had exclaimed, "It is fin- 
ished," and had expired. The thief had not yet 
begun to die. Jesus died on the day in which 
he was crucified, and on that day he went to 
hell. That may sound a little strange, but it is 
true, nevertheless. "Thou wilt not leave my 
soul in hell, nor suffer Thine holy one to see 



141 

corruption," This prophecy refers to the death 
and burial of the Christ, and affirms that he 
would die and go to hell; but that he would not 
be left there long enough to admit of his body's 
seeing corruption. That is, he would be resur- 
rected before his body should decay in the 
grave. The thief did not die on that day, he 
did not have the satisfaction even of going to 
to the same hell that Jesus had gone to. Quite 
otherwise. When he died he went to hell fire; 
that is, he was carried down to the valley of 
Hinnom, and burned up in hell fire along with 
the other offal of the city. While he was burn- 
ing in hell fire, Jesus was resurrected from the 
hell he had gone to, and appeared to Mary; and, 
later on to many others. On the evening of that 
Sabbath, the twelve had secreted themselves in 
an upper room for fear of the Jews, not knowing 
how soon they might all be arrested for com- 
plicity in the treason for which their leader had 
just been executed. The doors and windows 
were securely fastened, and they were eating 
their frugal meal in silence and dread, when sud- 
denly, unannounced and unushered, there stood 
before them a stranger. How did he get in.^ 
Was it an apparition, or was it some dreadful 
scheme for the arrest of the party.-* Had this 
nocturnal visitor been concealed in the room to 
hear their talk, and collect evidence as a detective 



142 



with which to convict them of the crime of treason? 
When he thus suddenly appeared, great fear 
fell upon them. ''They were terrified and 
affrighted and supposed they had seen a spirit." 
It must be borne in mind that these writers ex- 
press in the fewest words only the leading ideas, 
leaving the rest to the imagination. These 
statements prove just what they were intended 
to establish, namely, that there were none of the 
disciples that expected ever to see Jesus alive 
after having seen him dead ; and no man's 
astonishment could now be nearly so great as 
theirs was, if, three days after burying some 
dear friend, he should be locked up in his private 
room, sure that he was entirely alone, and 
should be suddenly confronted by his dead 
friend whom he knew he had helped to bury 
three days before. So we see that Jesus had 
risen from the dead while the thief was con- 
suming in the fire of hell. Neither of them had 
gone to Paradise yet. Jesus had, a little while 
before and on that same day, said to Mary, 
"Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to 
my Father." When Mary saw him, and re 
ized that it was really and truly her blessed and 
beloved Lord and friend actually alive again, 
she could not restrain her surprise and joy, and 
in the ardor of her rapturous delight, she 
rushed upon him to embrace him as she would a 



143 

lost and loved child whom she had sought, and 
suddenly found. Jesus remoustrated with her, 
giving as a reason why she should restrain her 
affection within reasonable bounds, that he had 
not yet ascended to his Father. If she had 
had time to think, she would have known that, 
for if he had cended to his Father he 
would not have been standing on the ground 
before her. This sufficiently shows that Jesus 
and the thief did not die the same day, 
did not go to the same place, Did not certain- 
ly go together to Paradise, since there was no 
Paradise. They have not gone to Paradise yet, 
for there is no Paradise yet. Jesus has gone to 
Heaven to prepare a Paradise. And when it is 
prepared, he will raise that thief from death, 
restore him to life in that Paradise. Jesus will 
be there with him, Jesus, the King; the thief, 
a subject. This cannot occur, however, until 
the second resurrection, since the second res- 
urrection restores to life those who have been 
sleeping the sleep of death since they died. 
But, this is a matter of the future, known only 
to God. We can tell nothing about it, unless 
we can find in revelation some statement that 
will enable us to know. All that I have been 
able to learn from that source leads me to think 
that it is God's purpose to perfect the Earth in- 
to a Paradise. That is, to send Christ and all 



144 

the Christ power to Ea-'th to interpose them be- 
tween Satan's forces and mankind, thus remov- 
ing the sin-inspiring influence from the human 
race. This would be equivelant to entirely 
changing hum.an nature. It would utterly an- 
nihilate the doctrine of total depravity, and lead 
to the doctrine of human perfection. Thus Sa- 
tan, and all sinful influence removed, the hu- 
man race would gradually, but rapidly, progress 
to that state of perfection, so often foretold in sa- 
cred Writ, "When Christ, who is our life, shall 
appear, then also shall ye appear with him in 
glory, to the end that he may establish your 
hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even 
our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, with all his saints. Unto them that look 
for him, shall he appear the second time with- 
out sin unto salvation. For, by one offering he 
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. 
Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of 
the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect 
man, unto the measure of the stature of the full- 
ness of Christ. For, in him dwelleth all the 
fullness of the God head bodily. And ye are 
complete in him, who is the head of all princi- 
pality and power." Thus, you will see, Paul has 
exhausted language in trying to teach the glo- 
rious consummation of all things, when God 
shall be all in all. And sin shall be no more. 



145 

Oh! what a glorious achievement! When all 
will be God, when again there shall be in all the 
universe nothing but God. God is the perfection 
of goodness, and when all intelligent nature, 
when all intelligences shall be perfectly good, 
the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in them, 
t\iQn all shall be God, ''And there shall be no 
mord death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain; for the former 
things have passed away. 

I recall a remark of yours made sometime 
ago, in which you conveyed the idea that God 
first devised all his plans for the reduction of 
Satan to obedience, and the utter annihilation 
of sin and wickedness, and that the item of time 
entered into his computation. So that he had 
fixed a time when each of the different parts of 
his work should be accomplished. Now, what I 
should like to ask is. Is there anything in reve- 
lation which would indicate the time of the ac- 
complishment of any particular subdivision of 
his work, so that the careful, earnest, and un- 
prejudiced seeker might, with any degree of cer- 
tainty, determine the time, either before or after 
the fact? 

Inspiration is the draft, or record, of God's 
plan; and it contains all there is of it. If men 
£ould understand it as God understands it they 
would also have known the end from the beginning. 



146 

But, if this could have been, then Satan might 
also have known, and knowing, he might have 
defeated God's purposes. He would then not 
have been reserved in chains of darkness in 
hell, for all there is of these chains of darkness 
is the fact that God has kept His plans so hidden 
from Satan, that he has always found out what 
going on just in time to give it a shove, think- 
ing he would annihilate it. He has in fact only 
pushed it on to the right track which it would have 
missed if Satan had not come up just in time to 
set it right by lopping off some of its superfluous 
growth. Satan has done this through the agen- 
cy of a Voltaire, a Thomas Payne, a Robert In- 
gersol, and a host of others, sent into the arena 
by Satan, but utilized of God for the tearing 
down of error which the creeds had sought to 
enforce on man as truth. 

Then, these dreadful atheists, infidels and 
deists, against whom' the church so relentlessly 
hurled its anathemas, were not such monsters 
after all. 

By no means; ''God makes the wrath of 
men to praise Him." It was fully as important 
to tear down that which ought not to have 
been built, as it was to build that which had to 
! be torn down. They were indeed immeasura- 
bly better than the anathematizing church; fo" 
when they had said their say, they left the peo- 



'47 



pie to make what they pleased of it; while the 
church, unable to successfully meet them in the 
arena of debate, resorted to violence, cruel per- 
secution, employing the stake, the knout, 
the lash, the inquisition, fire, sword, and 
every devise that their diabolical ingenuity 
could invent to compel the acceptance as 
truth of the most preposterous errors, by 
men who knew them to be thus absurd. 
But, as to the matter of time as indicated in the 
inspired word, the prayerful, careful seeker 
may, after the events have transpired, and some- 
times even before they transpire, locate with 
reasonable certainty the passing moment which 
God had fixed, as the time when some impor- 
tant event, in the execution of the plan, should 
transpire. At all events, whether man can 
locate them or not, they exist. The difficulty 
in locating them may be illustrated in this way: 
First, men are generally looking for something 
novel and marvelous and, in this way vastly 
greater than is to take place. They fail to 
recognize in the commonplace events of every- 
day life the execution of the great plan of the 
Almighty, and not seeing what they look for, 
they deny that anything of importance is trans- 
piring. Again, time moves forward in a per- 
fectly natural way, like the hands on a clock 
face, slowly and steadily passing the figures on 



148 

the dial without the slightest unnatural jar or 
discord that should attract the notice of a busy 
world. So when men read the graphic descrip- 
tions of these events as -.portrayed in the ira- 
agery of the prophetic writers, they immediately 
locate the scene in heaven, or hell, or in some 
other far-off, out-of-the-way place, and fancy 
that the prophecy is to be fulfilled there. This 
is no' more absurd than their other fallacies. 
For example, when , they read ''There shall be 
no more death,'' that's in Heaven, they say; not 
discerning that there never was any death in 
Heaven, and therefore, it could not be said there 
shall be no more death there. Again, they read, 
"Then shall he say unto them on his left hand, 
depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire 
prepared for the Devil and his angels;" and 
immediately they say, these words are ad- 
dressed to the immortals soul of the dead 
sinners, seeming not to notice that the 
parties spoken to are living men on Earth, 
and not sinners dead and under the sod. Persons 
are spoken to, not immortal souls. That this 
denunciation is leveled at men and not at souls, 
Is clearly seen by looking at the beginning of 
the statement: "When the son of man shall 
come in his glory, and all the holy angels with 
him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glo- 
ry, and before him shall be gathered all nations." 



149 

Not, all immortal souls. Nations are people, 
not souls. The living people on Earth are thje 
ones referred to. If the dead were meant, they 
could not be thus gathered together, for these 
events transpire before the resurrection. But, 
perhaps you would like to know what is meant 
by the everlasting fire. Simply death and suf- 
fering connected with life and death. 

But this is called everlasting fire. Death is 
but the work of a short time at most. How 
could that be called everlasting.^ 

Observe that it is the fire that is everlast- 
ing, not the individual. You may have an ever- 
lasting fire in your stove by putting in addition- 
al lumps of coal before the former ones are burn- 
ed up; that is, by continually feeding the fire, 
it will be everlasting, though each separate 
lump of coal might burn up in a very sh®rt time, 
So it is with the everlasting fire spoken of in 
the scriptures. It is continually being fed with 
additional sinners, so before one lot are burned 
up, enough others are thrown in to keep the fire 
burning; for, the ent;ire ever referred to, which 
in this case was the gospel ever^ That is, 
the Bible divides time into two evers. The 
ever before Christ and the ever after Christ, 
till sin shall be removed. While these evers 
are in progress, sin prevails and men die 
the natural death, which is the second death, 



ISO 

the lake of fire, the everlasting fire. This is* to 
destroy sin and Satan by converting wicked men 
and devils from their errors to truth and r-ight- 
eousness, or letting them die in their sins to be 
reserved for judgment. But the scripture says 
those on his right hand shall go away into ever- 
lasting life. This means that the one set shall 
die, and the other live. The scene is laid at the 
coming of Christ, at the beginning of the end of 
sin. For "Jesus shall appear a second time 
without sin unto salvation." That is, Jesus will 
come a second time, abolish sin, and introduce 
salvation or life.. So those on his right hand, be- 
ing men livitig on Earth, will go away into ever- 
lasting (salvation from death) life, or they will 
never die, for death will be no more. But they 
will be translated to heaven without death, for 
death will be superceded by translation. Men, 
women and children will still live on Earfeh, but 
will have everlasting life; that is, they will never 
die, for ''there will be no more death." Again 
we have reached the ultimatum of all things 
when God is all in all. 

But will you give me an example of some 
important event in modern history which has 
marked the beginning of some new order of 
things, and which, though it has escaped the 
observation of the busy world, was, as it were, 
one of the important figures on the dial of the 



151 

time over which the hand unnoticed passed. 

There are two great eras, or ages, in the 
world's history which received the attention of 
the prophets; and while neither one of them 
began suddenly, nor by any great disturbance 
so as to attract attention, yet, inspiration has 
made them the theme of almost all its attention. 
This shows that the great works of God are so 
insignificant in man's estimation that they at- 
tract not his slightest notice; or, that he at- 
tributes them all to his own doings, and utterly 
fails to recognize God in them at all. However, 
God is none the less in them, for all man's doings 
are first designed of God. Man, as an ignorant 
puppet, carries them out, and fancies to him- 
self that he is somewhat, and indeed he is; but 
he is somewhat of a different somewhat from 
v^hat he thinks he is. For he is simply the victim 
of circumstances. He occupies a position to the 
great contending principalities of God and Satan 
very similar to that occupied by the Negro 
slave in the great war of the rebellion in the 
United States recently. He is a sort of contra- 
band of war, the object of contention, the vic- 
tim that is being ground to powder between 
the rollers of the great mills of the Gods. And 
nothing should so possess him as the desire to 
know when the beginning of the end of this 
grinding is to take place. In order to be the 



152 



better understood, I will go back and briefly 
glance at the two great divisions of the plan of 
salvation known, the one as the ever of the law, 
and the other as the ever of the gospel; or, as 
the law plan and the grace plan. These two 
divisions of the one plan were to be of equal 
duration, and if we knew just how long the law 
lasted before it was superceded by the gospel, 
we may also know when the gospel would be 
superceded by the judgement. The ending of 
the law dispensation was gradual and the end- 
ing of the gospel dispensation will be gradual. 
When the law ended, the gospel had made real- 
ly no preceptible start; when the gospel ends, 
the judgement may possibly have made little or 
no greater start. But the votaries of the old 
law, the Jew, has not yet recognized the gospel. 
Possibly the votaries of the gospel may, in like 
manner, never recognize the judgement. And 
so, while God has, for centaries, been sav- 
ing Gentiles through the gospel, the Jew 
has never seen it, but has been dying all along 
down these centuries without knowing there was 
any salvation. The Christian in like man- 
ner may reject the everlasting gospel, 
refuse to secognize the existence of the judg- 
ment and so die and go away into everlasting 
fire, be placed on his left hand for want of a 
willingness to grasp the situation, or to observe 



153 

the signs of the times. These things are future 
and we can only read the future by the past. 
God had specifically set forth certain great 
events in human history which should be recog- 
nized as land marks by which to determine 
how far the great work had progressed. The 
greatest and most surprising of all these land 
marks, have been passed without being noticed 
by men, because men located the events 
described in the wrong ever, and supposed 
the prophecy fulfilled before Christ's first 
coming, instead of before his second coming. 
To understand this matter, a fair knowledge of 
the history of the Jews during the gospel ever, 
must be in possession of the student. I shall 
not attempt a careful recital of it for I am not 
reciting Jewish history, and it is easily accessi- 
ble to any of the Earth's inhabitants. But I 
will say that every plague and curse pronounced 
upon them by Moses, was visited upon them, 
first, during the Mosaic euer\ and, second, or 
its double, was visited upon them during the 
gospel ever. That their sufferings have been 
simply indescribable and unceasing during these 
evers. They are meeting with a similar ex- 
perience even now in Russia. And here I 
will stop to pronounce a dreadful woe upon the 
Russian Government, for God will visit them 
with a whirlwind of destruction. Their judg- 



154 



ment of a long time lingereth not, and their 
damnation slumbereth not for all the calami- 
ties that their wicked avarice has led and is 
leading them to perpetrate upon God's own 
people. It is God's determined purpose to de- 
liver this people; and if Russia will not let them 
live on her soil, nor let them go hence in peace, 
then Pharaoh's destruction was as a zephyr to 
the whirlwind that will sweep Russia, as an em- 
pire, from the map of the world. The mutterings 
of that mighty storm are already heard on Earth. 
We will return now to events that are passed 
with a view to answering your question. I will 
say that this deliverance of the Jewish people 
has been clearly set forth by Isaiah; and the 
time when it should begin and be accomplished 
in the old Roman Empire, or that part of the 
empire lying in Europe, is clearly marked by 
events of transcendent importance. I will re- 
mark that while the decree of emancipation 
would be instantaneons, still, its execution would 
be gradual. The prophetic history of these 
great events is given simply to indicate the 
beginning of the end of the Jewish double or 
second ever of suffering. It marks the dawn of 
• a glorious day, the like of which the world never 
before saw; which day will rapidly develop 
into the perfect day — ^not only of Jewish 
deliverance, but of universal righteousness. 



155 

Isaiah says: ''For the Lord will yet choose 
Israel and set them in their own land, and the 
strangers shall be joined with them, and they 
shall cleave to the House of Jacob, and the 
people shall take them and bring them to their 
place; and the House of Israel shall possess 
them in the land of the Lord for servants and 
handmaids; and they shall take them captives 
whose captives they were, and they shall rule 
over their oppressors." Now, he has told us 
what God will do for Jacob. God has not done 
it yet. If the prophet is right, this thing, 
whatever it be, is yet to be done. The language 
cannot be taken to mean other than that Israel 
is to receive a great blessing from the hand of 
God, and is to be liberated from suffering and 
bondage. In order to get a clear and reason- 
able view of this matter, we are bound to admit 
the existence of a God, who has a work on hand 
and a plan for its execution, embracing the co- 
operation of parts of the human race with him- 
self. In order successfully to enlist the help of 
mankind in the execution of His plan, it is nec- 
essary to communicate to them the plan; to 
satisfy them that that communication is true, it 
would be requisite to mention some of the more 
important events embraced in the plan, and in- 
dicate the time when they would be caused to 
transpire; so that when they took place the 



156 

people, noting that fact, would be confirmed in 
their faith and caused to labor with greater energy 
in the good cause, feeling that they had the help 
of the Infinite and the certainty of success. 
But, if we admit this, we must look for some sort 
of record of the more importent events. Such 
a record would be history written before it took 
place, it would be prophecy.- Now, if prophecy 
^s anything, it is such a history of some of Earth's 
great events which can be deciphered and un- 
derstood by some of Earth's students. If this is 
so, we should naturally expect to find the great- 
est and most startling events of history all along 
down the ages mentioned in prophecy. And 
now, accepting this view of the matter, I will re- 
count to you a few of the incidents in the most 
remarkable part of Earth's history, and see 
whether or not they have been noticed by any 
of the prophets. At a time when an entire 
change of dispensation is about to occur we, of 
course, should expect the prophets to indicate 
its approach by recording a history of some 
event occurring just before it. Inspiration in- 
dicates the Divine purpose to be to complete the 
work of salvation in three distinct divisions: 
First, under the Father; second, under the Son; 
and third, under the Comforter (Paraclete). 
These are the three evcrs of human existence. 
Th« first ever before Christ, the second ever af- 



157 

ter Christ and before the judgment, or world to 
come, and the third ever the judgment. Or, 
first, the law; second, the gospel; third, the ev- 
erlasting gospel. Now, the first of- these, the 
law, was ushered in by the thunders of Sinai, 
the pillar of fire by night, the pillar of cloud by 
day, and by many other signs and wonders. 
The second, the gospel of Christ, was likewise 
introduced by many miracles, and was the sub- 
ject of prophecy all adown the Jewish ever from 
its great enunciation after the law of agreement 
had been broken at Sinai, by ntaking and 
worshiping the molten calf. This wonderful 
prophetic promise of their Messiah is in these 
words: ''The Lord thy God will raise up unto 
thee a prophet, from the midst of thee, of thy 
brethren, like unto me (Moses); unto him ye 
shall harken, according to all that thou desiredst 
of the Lord thy God in Horeb, in the day of the 
assembly, saying. Let me not hear again the 
voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see 
this great fire any more, that I die not. And 
the Lord said unto me, They have weM spoken 
what they have spoken. I will raise them up a 
prophet from among their brethren, like unto 
thee, and I will put my words into his mouth, 
and he shall speak unto them all that I shall 
command him. And it shall come to pass that 
whosoever will not not harken unto my words 



I -.8 



which he shall speak in my name, 1 will require 
it of him." Now, if the two first evers were 
ushered in by such wonderful demonstrations, 
and if both- of these evers were evolved simply 
to pave the way for the one great ever of Christ's 
Kingdom, would it not be surprising if that king- 
dom were introduced without the slightest pro- 
phetic indication of its approach or of its pres- 
ence? Such a supposition is vastly more unreas- 
onable than to interpret a prophecy as to make 
it apply where the blind leaders of the blind had 
not seen its application. A condition of things 
arose in France a hundred years ago that devel- 
oped the most appalling complication of catas- 
trophes that ever befell the human race. It was 
a most startling attempt to annihilate Christian- 
ity, to roll back the progress of the ages, to 
reinstate that old serpent the Dragon, on heath- 
enism, in the worship of Reason, in the elevation 
of a most detestable harlot to be crowned 
Goddess of Reason. Such horr-ible insanity by 
a whole nation is unparallelled in history, and 
for pure and adulterated lunacy it emphatisally 
eclipses the unutterable folly of the Jewish fac- 
tions at the end of the first ever, ox the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem; and, as this first ever was a 
matter of interest to the Jews only, its horrible 
ending fell on them alone. But, as the second 
ever was a matter of interest to the Gentile, or 



J59 



dragon element, its horrible ending fell on those 
people. The first ever ended in a tremendous 
effort on the part of the Jews to re-establish their 
law system. The second ever ended in a des- 
perate effort by the infidel dragon element to 
re-establish heathenism. These dreadful con- 
vulsions, with their appalling consequences, arose 
from the convulsive efforts of Satan, to hurl back 
the advance of Christianity and regrasp his 
waning imperial sway. Now, as the Jewish 
bondage was to continue through both of these 
evers, its end must be reached at the end of the 
second ever; and it would be singular, indeed, if 
after all the prophets had prophesied concerning* 
the Jews, they had been left with no means of 
knowing when this second ever should end. 
Let us look for a short time at the history of the 
great Napoleon Bonaparte and see what we shall 
find in it. When the awful French revolution 
to which I have referred had largely expended 
its force, there appeared in the arena this won- 
derful man of destiny — the greatest meteerric 
phenomenon that ever appeared in the political 
firmament. This wonder of wonders arose from 
nothingness and suddenly blazed across the polit- 
tical sky in unapproachable splendor and glory 
and just as suddenly sank into the abyss of obliv- 
ion, to be followed years later by his ''son and 
nephew,^' in the person of Napoleon III, who 



i6o 



shone in less splendor, but went out in equal 
darkness. 

Were these men subjects of prophesy? 

Undoubtedly tliey were; and the aim of the 
prophet was thus to mark the end of the second 
ever, the liberation of Jacob and the restoration 
to Israel of the rights of men. ''The Lord will 
have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, 
and it shall come to pass in the day that the 
Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and 
from thy fear, and from the hard bondage where- 
in thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take 
up this proverb against the king of Rome 
(Napoleon Bonaparte), and say, How hath the 
oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased." The 
greedy quality of Napoleon's character is well 
established. When about to invade Italy, he 
addressed his army in these words: ''Soldiers, 
you are naked and ill-fed. I will lead yoH into 
the most fruitful plains in the wortd. Rich prov- 
inces, great cities will be in your power. There 
you will find honor, fame- and wealth." In this 
announcement, says a historian, is the key to 
the history of Europe for the next twenty 
years. He remorselessly took everything he 
wished, after levying heavy direct taxes on a 
city or municipality. "From- the outset it had 
been contemplated to make the invasion of 
Italy profitable. Contributions were levied so 



i6i 



rapaciously that, in the duchy of Milan, where 
the French had professed to appear as brothers 
and liberators, a rebellion against them soon 
broke aut which Bonaparte suppressed with the 
merciless cruelty he always showed in such 
cases. He kept the promise of the first procla- 
mation. He made the army rich." ''From 
this moment," writes Marmont, "the chief part 
of the pay and salaries were paid in coin." 
"The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, 
and the scepter of the rulers" 

This language refers to both the first and 
third Napoleon, and portrays the situation as it 
is under the present republic. Then returning 
to Napoleon I, it defines him thus: "He who 
smote the people in wrath with a continual 
stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is 
persecuted and none hindereth." This is when 
Napoleon was a prisoner on the isle of St. Helena. 

"Bonnie's away fiam his warring and his fighting; 

He is now in a place, he can never take delight in. 
Hecan sit down and tell of the ba>tces he has been in, 

While alone he doth mourn on the isle of St. Helena.*' 

So some poet has expressed it. "The whole 
Earth is at rest and is quiet. They break forth 
into singing (as in the song just given); Yea, 
the fir trees (kings of Europe) rejoice at thee; 
and the cedars of Lebanon (rulers of Asia Mi- 
nor, Egypt, and Turkey), saying, Since thou art 
laid down, no feller has come up against us," 



1 62 



they having in mind his monstrous expedition 
to Egypt and Syria. This is one of the anoma- 
lies of history. What could Bonaparte want in 
Egypt at such a time.'^ has been the wonder of 
the world. But thus it became him to fulfill 
what was written of him by the prophet. This 
is the best answer that was ever given to that 
question. The prophet shows up his condition 
while in his living hell, St. Helena. "Hell from 
beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy 
coming. It stirreth up the dead (spiritually 
dead) for (against) thee, even all the chief ones 
of the Earth. It (their hate of him) 
hath raised up from their thrones all 
the kings of the nations. All they shall speak 
and say unto thee. Art thou also become weak as 
we } Art thou become like unto us ?" What 
did the kings of the Earth say v/hen Napoleon 
was down to rise no more ? If this language 
does not describe their astonishment and their 
joy, then what in so few words would do it ? 
No man can say it plainer to-day than the proph- 
et said it twenty-five hundred years ago. **Thy 
pomp is brought down to the grave, and the 
noise of thy viols." The grandeur of his courtly 
splendor was buried, and the magnificent, soul- 
inspiring strains of his courtly music were heard 
no more. Quite otherwise: "The worm is 
spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 



i63 

How art tliou fallen from heaven, O, Lucifer, 
son of the morning !" The heaven of his exalt- 
ed military glory and unequaled political splen- 
dor. "Son of the morning." He should arise 
and flourish just at the end of the second ever^ 
the end of the Roman Empire, for, although the 
Roman empire had ceased long before to wield 
any political influence, and its existence was 
scarcely recognized, yet it had an existence. 
The Encyclopaedia Brittannica, vol, 17, page 
210, says: "The battle of Austerlitz placed Na- 
poleon virtually at the head of the old Roman 
empire, not only did it found the ephemeral Na- 
poleonic empire by handing over Venitia to the 
Napoleonic monarchy of Italy, and Tyrol and 
Vorarlberg to Napoleon's new client, Bavaria; 
it also destroyed the holy Roman Empire, while 
it divided the remains of Hither Austria between 
Wurtemburg and Baden, In the summer of 1806 
the Emperor of Austria (had this title since 1804) 
solemnly abdicated the title of Roman Emperor f 
Later on. Napoleon took the great iron crown 
at Milan and crowned himself Imperial C(E- 
sar of the Roman Empire. He afterwords 
gave his infant son the title of King of 
Rome So his end was the end of Rome. 
"The conquest of Germany, acheived in little 
more time than had sufliced to Bonaparte ten 
years before for the conquest of Italy, put him 



164 



in a new light. He had already passed through 
many phases; he had been the invincible cham- 
pion of liberty, the destroyer of Jacobinism, and 
the champion of order. Then the new Constan- 
tine, and restorer of the church; then the pacifi- 
cator of the world; then the founder of a mon- 
archy in France. Now suddenly in 1807, he 
stands forth in the new character of head of a 
great European confederacy. By the side of 
the Bonaparte princes there were the German 
princes who looked up to France, as under the 
Holy Roman Empire they had looked up to 
Austria. These were formed into a confederation 
in which the archbishop, of Mainz (Dalberg) 
presides as he had before presided in the 
empire. A princess of Bavaria weds Eugene 
Beauharnals (a son of Bonaparte's wife); a princess 
of Wurtemberg marries Jerome Bonaparte." Thus 
the Bonapartes were ^'joined with Kings in mar- 
riage," and Napoleon, himself,determined on the 
same thing. Having no heir by his wife, Jo- 
sephine, he had been urged to divorce her and 
marry a princess, but demurred to do that for the 
time and thought to adopt the eldest son of 
Louis by Hortense (his wife's danghter). This 
child died suddenly of croup in the spring of 
1807, and this occurring at the moment when lie 
attained his position of King oi Kings, probably 
decided Iwm in his own mind to proceed to a 



165 

divorce. Arrived now at the pinnacle, Napoleon 
paused as he had paused after Marango. We 
are disposed to ask what use will he make of his 
boundless power? The year 1810 is occupied 
with his heightening of the continentel system, 
and the annexations which it involved." There 
now ripened in Napoleon's brain a grand and 
overpowering scheme. He saw himself, in his 
own imagination, riding toweringly high on the 
topmost crest of the eternal wave of imperisha- 
ble fame and glory. He longed to go higher, 
and contemplated the subjugation of Russia, the 
conquest of Brittain and the universal unification 
in one empire of every foot of Europe; and then 
— well, to bring this about, he felt that he must 
have associated with him at least one man on whom 
he could depend as on himself, and who might 
act as regent, managing civil affairs while he 
carried forward the conquest. He sought that 
man in his brother Lucien, whom alone he 
thought he dared trust. He went to him, com- 
municated his plans, and promised Lucien the 
elevation to glory of which his most exalted as- 
pirations had never dreamed. The gidy height 
was too great for Lucien. Appalled, aghast, he 
fainted away from the proposition and declined 
to second his brother's boundless ambition. Na- 
poleon chagrined, disappointed and discouraged, 
returned to undertake the subjugation of Russia 



1 66 



without Lucien's help. '*He himself regarded it 
as the unfortunate effect of a fatality, and he 
betrayed throughout an unwonted reluctance 
and perplexity." ' 'For thou hast said in thine 
hearty I zvill ascend into heaven; I will exalt my 
throne above the stars of God; I will sit also up- 
on the fnotint of the congregation in the sides of 
the north. I will ascend above the heights of the 
clouds, I zvill be like the Most High.'' Well, 
did he get there.-* What does history say.-* 
What does the prophet say.? History replies: 
Moscow, Waterloo. The prophet says: ''Yet 
thou shalt be brought doivn to she ol, to the sides 
the pit. They that see thee shall ?iarrowly look upon 
thee, and consider thee^ sayiftg, Is this the man 
that made the Earth to tremble? That did shake 
kingdoms? That made the world as a wilderness? 
And destroyed the cities thereof? that opened not 
the house of his prisoners!' The reputation of 
Napoleon for holding his prisoners in safety and 
refusing to let them go, is notorious. This be- 
ing one of the most prominent characteristics of 
the man, is very properly referred to by the 
prophet. One of the most interesting and pa- 
thetic, if not the most shameful, incidents of 
those cruel times, was the causeless arrest and 
imprisonment of the English woman, Lady Syd- 
ney Smith, while traveling in Northern Italy and 
Austria. The thrilling story of her attempts to 



i6; 

elude her pursuers and her final escape, fitly il- 
lustrates Napoleon's peculiar penchant for hold- 
ing fast his prisoners whether there was any 
cause for their arrest or not. ^'All the kings of 
the nations, even all of them, lie {live) in glory 
every one iu his oivn house (except Napoleon). 
But thou art cast out of thy grave, like an abom- 
inable branchy His was a living grave. No 
other man had ever met such fate; being only 
forty-six years old, and having reveled in a scale 
of unequalled grandeur and greatness, with a 
whole continent and its millions of people but 
too willing to anticipate his least desire, having 
shone in a court, the splendor of whose magni- 
ficence was to the grandeur of other kingly courts 
as the opulence of wealth is to poverty and nak- 
edness, his utter obscurity and loneliness, im- 
prisoned on a small, barren island, far away 
from human intercourse, was simply to be bur- 
ied alivel And no mortal could more keenly feel 
its galling, excruciating torture than did this 
man of destiny. This dreadful remorseless feel- 
ing is evinced in his declaration that ''Cantillion 
had as much right to assassinate that Oligar- 
chist, Wellington, as the latter had to send me 
to perish upon the rock of St. Helena." But 
than art cast out of thy grave like an abominable 
branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain^ 
thrust tJirougJi with a sword, that go doivn to 



i68 



the stones of the pity as a carcass trodden 
under foot. Thou shalt not be joined with them 
{the kings) in burial^ because thou hast dest'/oyed 
thy land and slain thy peopled Because of his 
terribly murderous career, the oppression and 
affliction which all people, both in and out of 
France, had suffered from him, rendered him, 
now that the halo of glory was gone, an object 
of unutterable contempt and hatred, so that his 
burial with the kings was too ridiculous to be 
thought of. He died of an ulcer in his stomach, 
on May 5, 182 1. "In his will he declared him- 
self a Catholic; spoke tenderly of Marie Louise 
and his son, and other members of his family so 
long unseen by him. He devoted the English 
oligarchy, to whom he ascribed his pre- 
mature death, to the vengeance of the 
English people. He gave 10,000 francs to Can- 
tillon who had been tried for an attempt on the 
life of Lord Wellington." ''The seed of these 
evil doers shall not be renowned.'' That is, these 
two evil doers, Nepolcon I, and Napoleon HI, 
o r that is all there was of 'the Napoleonic dy- 
nasty. But each of them had one son, hence 
the seed as one only, of each emperor. But 
these never became renowned. The first died 
in the Austrian court, nobody seems to know 
how. His obscurity is about that of a hermit. 
The other went down to South Africa to help 



169 

the English fight the Boers, and was killed; just 
how, is uncertain. Thus, they certainly were 
not renowned. ''Prepare slaughter for his {their) 
children^ for the iniquity of their fathers ; that 
they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the 
face of the world zvith cities. " They were both 
slaughtered. It is said of the son of the first 
Napoleon that, seeing his father's sword in 
Austria, he took it, swung it around his head, 
and exclaimed, "Sword of my father, thou shalt 
yet make all Europe tremble." This exclamation 
caused a gloom to shadow the Austrian court, and 
soon after the young man died, as was announced 
of laryngeal phthisic, — choked to death, likely. 
*'For I will rise up against them, sayeth the 
Lord of Hosts, and cut off from France the name 
and remnant, and son, and nephew, sayeth the 
Lord. It is a singular fact that, in all the his- 
tory of empires, there never was a dynasty be- 
fore, composed of the reign of two emperors the 
second of whom was both the soji and nephew of 
tlic first. And it is profoundly astonishing that 
all these facts, even to this fact, should have 
been brought out by the prophet if they did not 
apply here where every condition is met. Son 
and nephew. Yes, the third Napoleon was both 
the son and nephew of the first, the son of Na- 
poleon's brother by Hortense who was his step- 
daughter. Thus, he was step son and a 



I/O 

neph ew. But if this prophecy is not fulfille as 
above set forth, then it never has been fulfilled 
and it never can be; and is, consequently, 
not a prophecy. But it is the clearest history 
of Napoleon ever written in so few words, and 
locates him in exactly the right place in the 
morning of a new and glorious age, and at the 
time of Jewish emancipation from all their sor- 
row; in exact harmony with the prophetic dec- 
laration, '*It shall come to pass in the day the 
Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and 
from thy fear, and from the hand of bondage 
wherein thou wast made to serve, the Lord of 
hosts hath sworn saying, Verily, as I have 
thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have 
proposed so shall it stand. That I will breajk 
the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountain 
tread him under foot (this was done by Napo- 
leon); then shall his yoke depart from off them 
and his burden depart from off their shoulders. 
This is the purpose that is purposed in all the 
Earth." With breaking this yoke the Jews had 
nothing to do, but it was done in God's own 
way, through the agency of Napoleon. And 
this is the first and only time it ever was done. 
When Napoleon was in the zenith of his power, 
and all Europe lay at his feet, with no appar- 
ant reason except to gratify one of his whims, 
he surprised the world by calling a great Jewish 



171 



Sanhedrim to assemble at Paris. This body 
assembled and held a lengthy session. To them 
Napoleon propounded twelve important ques- 
tions, and to these he received satisfactory 
answers. And he issued a proclamation declaring 
all his subjects of the Jewish persuasion to be 
equally free, and to possess all the rights, privi- 
leges and immunities of any of the subjects of 
the Empire. This great proclamation of human 
freedom has had no parallel in history, unless 
that of Abraham Lincoln emancipating the 
American slaves might be such; but it really 
was not, for it was conditional, and addressed, 
not to the slave, but to his master. But Napo- 
leon unconditionally liberated all the Jews in 
southern Europe, and they have ever since been 
free and ever will be. **For God has given them 
rest from their sorrow and from their fear, and 
from their hard bondage wherein they were made 
to serve." This remarkable prophecy in the 14th 
chapter of Isaiah should not have escaped the 
notice of Earth's theologians. 

One thing I have observed during the pro- 
gress of this conversation, and that is, that you 
have all along assured me that the time would 
come, on Earth, when the human race would 
live in perfect health and happiness. When 
every sorrow and pain, when every species of 
suffering and sadness would have passed away. 



\J2 



When every human being would be perfectly 
honest, and the highest aspiration and greatest 
desire of each and every one would be to do the 
greatest possible amount of good for each and 
every other one. I must say this would be a 
grand consummation, indeed, an achievement 
worthy of the great God of goodness and glory; 
and when I think of it, I can not fail to realize 
that anything less would certainly be unworthy 
of our God, the Lord and his Christ. The diffi- 
culty I encounter in harmonizing the scripture 
with the exalted view of the consumation of all 
things with which you present me, arises from 
the fact that you tell me that even death 
is to pass away, and mankind are no longer 
to die. Now, I have in mind one passage 
which I have always understood to teach that 
all men would die. It is this: "It is appointed 
unto men once to die, and after this the judg- 
ment." Now, this is sometimes quoted, "It is 
appointed unto all men," but I am aware that 
there is no ''all" in the passage. You have 
most conclusively shown that, if death is re- 
moved from any place at all, it must be from a 
place where it is, and not from a place where it 
never existed. And further, that there are 
passages which clearly teach that ''death shall 
be no more." So I have thought that the text 
I have quoted possibly did not apply to the 



173 

whole human race, and that It might with pro- 
priety be read, "It is appointed unto some men 
once to die." 

If inspiration had designed to convey that 
idea, we may freely assume that it would have 
employed those words to express it; so, as it 
did not, we may be fully persuaded that some 
other idea was intended to be conveyed. The 
distinction between the sons of men — nien^ and 
the sons of God — God, that is between the wick- 
ed and the good, must not be lost sight of. It 
is appointed unto men (wicked men) once to die. 
When this text was written all men were wicked. 
**There is none good, no not one," was the con- 
dition then prevailing. That is the condition 
prevailing still. "Death by sin. Death passed 
upon all men because all had sinned," upon all 
wicked men, because only wicked men have 
sinned. But, where there is no sin there is no 
death. Sin alone kills, -'The wages of sin is 
death," natural death; since sin itself is spiritual, 
death, its wages, is natural death. Thus spirit- 
ual death is the one end of a string of which 
natural death is the other end. So soon as sin 
is committed, death begins and pursues its vic- 
tim to the end of life — natural death — where 
death itself ends. Sin is the canker-worm, the 
curculio, the decomposing, destroying element 
in nature; the cause of all the woes with 



174 

which mankind are and have been afflicted. 
Remove sin, and you remove every pos- 
sibility of sorrov/, suffering, sickness, or 
death. Hence, only sinful men can die. And 
after they do die, cease to die ; and they wil 
cease to die when they are all dead. But the 
wicked's being dead will not prevent the good 
from living. Indeed, their death is absolutely 
necessary in order that the good may have a 
chance to live. ''And after tJtat, the judgment.'* 
After what.? After all the wicked are dead 
the judgement. The good only will then be 
alive, and they will be judged. 

What! the good judged.? I thought they 
were the bad that would be judged. 

Certainly not; the bad cannot be judged; 
they are condemned ah'cady. After a man has 
been tried, found guilty, and condemned, 
would you still talk about judging him.? How 
absurd. These men are dead, and with their 
lives they have paid the penalty of sin. That is 
the greatest penalty that could be inflicted. 
When that is suffered the end is reached so far 
as the wicked are concerned. But the good 
must be judged, that is, governed, so that they 
shall not become bad. The judgment, as I haye 
before stated, is the righteous reign of the Lord, 
Christ and the saints, who shall wield the scep- 
ter of righteousness over all the purified Earth, 



175 

when there shall be nothing ''That loveth nor 
maketh a lie." Thus it is appointed unto the 
wicked once to die, and after they are all dead, 
then will come the judgment of the righteous. 

But, does not the revelator say "the 
books were opened, and another book was open- 
ed which is the book of life, and the dead were 
judged out of those things which were written 
in the books, according to their works.?" 

Most certainly he does, and very properly, 
too. Now, there is just this about opening 
books of account: Men open such books when 
they begin to keep the account, and not wh-^n 
they settle it. That is the time to close them. 
If the Revelator had said, the dead having been 
judged according to the account of their works 
kept in the books and the books were closed, 
you should have understood him to mean that 
the end was reached, the settlement made, and 
there was no further use for the books. But he 
says ''the books were opened," not closed, from 
which one infers that God is now about to com- 
mence keeping account for the first time. And 
you must easily see why he kept none before. 
There were none to keep, for the reason that 
the plan of salvation under the law proposed to 
save but one person, or, more properly, to per- 
fect but one person, Christ, which it had done. 
The plan of salvation under the gospel was that 



176 

of free salvation, but where a thing is free no 
book-keeping is necessary. So, under this plan 
there were no books opened. But in the right- 
eous government of Christ, where salvation de- 
pends upon works, the necessity of keeping 
books is most apparent; and so, at this time, 
after the second resurrection, the books were 
opened. This was in an age of life, for the book 
is called a ''book of life." "And I saw a great 
white throne." This is the new Heaven and the 
new Earth. ''And him that sat upon it, from 
whose face the Earth (old Earth)and the Heaven 
(old Heaven) fled away; and there was found no 
place for them." They were rolled up as a 
scroll, the age of their existence had passed 
away. They were nothing but two evers, or 
ages of time, and they had passed, they were 
gone just as two years are gone when they are 
passed. The Earth now entered the third era, 
age, epoch or ever, of time, known as the 
judgment. "And I saw the dead, small 
and great, stand before God, and the 
books were opened." These dead were no 
longer dead, for they had been resurrected, 
and they were therefore now alive. They had 
died in their sins; they had gone down into the 
grave in death; they had lain there in the obliv- 
ious sleep of death. They had known not any- 
thing, for "the dead know not anything." But 



177 

now, the righteous judgment, or government, of 
Christ and the glorified saints saved under the 
gospel, is in full sway over all the universe, and 
there is no longer any temptation to sin. All 
living are perfectly righteous, pure and holy. 
Now, the trumpet sounds and the dead who died 
out of Christ are raised in their order, not all at 
once, but just as fast as the glorified saints can 
take charge of them and form them into govern- 
ment, and keep them free from sin by a law pro- 
cess; and as rapidly as they are prepared thus for 
eternal life, it is given them and they are judged. 
In awarding them their reward accordm^ to the 
deeds which they do in the body in the judg- 
ment after their resurrection, for they will live 
in the body after the resurrection as they lived 
in the flesh before they died. But they will be 
surrounded by vastly different influences, and 
will live vastly different lives. However, as 
this matter is future, and the future is known 
only to God, I give you this view of it as I am 
able to gather it from'revelation. 

Speaking of revelation inclines me to ask, 
Is the entire Bible given by inspiration.? or are 
there some parts of it otherwise written? When 
I was engaged in the ministry I urged with great 
force the necessity of accepting the entire book 
as inspired. I knew very well that it had been 
written by quite a number of differ-ent authors 



178 

and in different ages of the world. I knew also 
that there were many comparatively able writers, 
and, as I thought, good men who differed 
greatly on this subject; but I felt sure 
the safe way was to accept it all as 
inspired. For I felt that if a doubt were thrown 
upon any part of it, a shadow would be over all; 
and if any part be admitted to be uninspired, then 
a difficulty would be encountered in determin- 
ing where to draw the line, and how much of it 
to accept, and how much to reject. I felt fully 
persuaded that the right thing to do was to 
occept it all. 

Now, my beloved, the principle you were 
disposed to be guided by is, possibly, more ob- 
jectionable than any error into which you .other- 
wise might have fallen in regard to the inspira- 
tion of the Bible. It is extremely objectionable 
to conclude that it is better to accept a possible 
error than to seek the truth, in fear that, if you 
find it, it might be something else than you had 
expected it to be. Keep in mind that truth 
alone has value, that perfect truth is perfect 
value. Error is a detraction from truth, and 
the amount of truth exists in inverse ratio 
to the amount of error with which it is associat- 
ed. That is, a little error reduces the value of 
truth a little, more error reduces it more 
and enough error destroys its value altogether. 



179 

Therefore, you should not be content so long as 
a doubt as to the truth of a thing exists. But in 
relation to the inspiration of the Bible, some of 
its books, as Revelation and the law, assert their 
inspiration, and fix penalties for any attempt to 
improve or otherwise change them. On the 
other hand, many of the books of the Bible lay 
no claim to inspiration, and it would seem absurd 
to insist on according to a book a quality that 
it does not claim. Much of the Bible is history, 
written either by the persons having a personal 
knowledge of the events of which they Wrote or, 
compiled from such data as the writers found 
accessible, and which they esteemed reliable. 
No man needs inspiration to enable him to make 
a record of past events of which he is person- 
ally cognizant; nor, does he need inspiration 
to enable him to compile a history from verbal 
or written accounts furnished by others. Hence, 
since none of the historical books claim to be 
inspired, and since there is no reason that they 
should be, it would seem absurd to make such a 
claim for them. All prophetic matter however, 
is inspired; or, if it is not, it is spurious. There 
is no more difficulty in telling the truth, when 
you know what it is, without inspiration, than 
there is in telling it when you do not know what 
it is, even if you have inspiration. It is truth 
we want, not inspiration. All the value the 



1 80 



Bible porsesses it has because of the truths it 
contains, and not from any notions of inspira- 
tion we may have in connection with it. Inspi- 
ration, so far as observed, is not generally found 
so abundant as to be thrown in where it is not 
needed. If inspiration is found available where 
it is indispensable that is all that can be asked, 
and all that will probably be accorded. 

But if any part of the Bible be not inspired, 
may it. not possibly be untrue ? 

I should think it not less liable to be true than 
the inspired part, since that written from per- 
sonal knowledge by a reliable writer would 
be expressed in language that the ordinary 
reader could understand; whereas, that given 
by inspiration might be expressed in 
figures of speach which would leave its meaning 
in great doubt. If the facts are misunderstood 
they might just as well be misstated. It is not 
the custom to reject all other history because it 
is not inspired; on the contrary, it is generally 
accepted without question, and that too, mainly 
because it does not pretend to be inspired. 
Bible history should be received with as much 
confidence as any other history, and it certainly 
would be so received if left on the plane where 
its writers put it, and no attempt were made to 
claim for it what it does not claim for itself. 

But does not the apostle say all scripture is 



i8i 



given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
tion in righteousness? I have observed that the 
word is is \n italics in the common English ver- 
sion which, I understand, is designed to show 
that the word is is supplied by the translators 
and, not being in the original, may properly be 
left out. 1 have always regarded this text as 
being equivalent to saying all scripture is given 
by inspiration, and I believe it is generally 
quoted that way. If that be its true meaning, 
then I should insist that the entire Bible was 
inspired. 

If it were asserted that all scripture is giv- 
en by inspiration, the assertion would be a won- 
derfully loose one, as scripture, unqualified, is 
any writing whatever. That is what the word, 
when not specifically applied, means. To assert 
that all writing is inspired, would be the climax 
of absurdity. 

Well, nobody thinks of doing that. 

They do it whenever they make that text 
read: "all scripture is given by inspiration." 
That text, like every other text, means exactly 
what is true, but does not attempt to make a 
truth. It asserts "that all scripture given by 
the inspiration of God and profitable," etc., for 
the purpose named, and that is unquestionably 
true; but it has nothing whatever to do with de- 



l82 



termining just what and how much of the vast 
amount of writing men have done, was penned 
^vhile the writers were under God's inspiration 
as He spread out before them the panorama of 
coming ages. It simply asserts that such writ- 
ings as were prepared under these conditions 
are profitable, to the end that the man of God 
may be thoroughly furnished unto all good work. 
All the Bible may be regarded as accurate as 
far as accurracy was attainable, and true as 
far as truth could be preserved; and it is to be 
received as such. To suppose that it is abso- 
lute perfection, or was ever intended to be so 
regarded, or, as having been given, either as a 
whole or in part, in such manner as that it must 
be understood in a certain and infallable man- 
ner, and that any-body would be held responsi- 
ble for any failure to so understand it, is a great- 
er error than to doubt the inspiration of four 
fifths of it. The truth is, the Bible presents you 
with a plan of salvation which is so plain "that 
the way-faring man, though a fool," can follow it 
to Heaven. But there maybe a vast amount of 
the book of which he need know nothing, nor 
does it make any difference to his eternal well- 
being how he understands it, or whether he 
ever knew of its existence. If it be asked, 
Why was the Bible thus written.? the answer is, 
because that was the way to make it succeed. 



i83 

If the Bible had been written plainly, as the pro- 
ducts of a writer of profane history, its great 
value as an educator would have been lost. The 
strife and study which have grown out of its 
half-hidden truths would have been unknown, 
and the development and progress of Bible 
people would have been no greater than that of 
heathen nations. Development was the great 
thing aimed at, not accuracy of understanding; 
for, under the gospel it made no difference how 
you understood anything else, if you knew 
enough to accept Christ as your Lord. If you 
did not know that, no difference what else you 
knew, the knowledge was of no use to you for 
the purposes of salvation. But if you knew 
enough to accept Christ as your Lord, 
then the more you studied the word, the 
greater your mental development became? 
and the greater your ability to be of use to God> 
yourself and your fellowmen. God wisely pro- 
vided you with a text-book that you might 
peruse all your life with great mental and moral 
profit to yourself, and at death feel that you 
had scarcely begun to learn its contents. But 
when, by its continued perusal, and by its other 
glorious achievements, the race has become so 
perfected as that they shall have knowledge 
enough to live in perfect holiness, purity and 
love, and thus be free from all evil thoughts. 



1 84 

evil deeds and evil consequences, then the work 
of the Bible will have been accomplished, and 
there will be no reason that it should not be 
most readily understood, since there will be no 
further need of its study. But as to creeds — the 
only creed or pledge in religion or politics to 
which any man has a right to subscribe is, I will 
strive to do the best I know, and will seek to 
know all I can. I will study to acquire truth 
and to make the best possible use of it, till it 
shall make me free. 

I wish you would kindly explain to me what 
inspiration really is; and how these communica- 
tions were made to men. Also, what the Savior 
meant by saying, '*0f myself I can do nothing." 
Was he not God.-* and very God.'* and could he 
not do anything by himself just as well as his 
Father could.-* 

In answer to your first question, I will illus- 
trate the situation, and thus show you exactly 
what the facts are. Can a man make anything 
out of nothing.-* I apprehend that you will at 
once answer, he can not; and then, probably, 
after a little thought you will want to take that 
back and say that he can. 

Why that would seem very strange. I 
should think that the more thought I gave to 
the subject the more sure I would become that 
he could not. What, indeed, could a man 



185 

make out of nothing? I have always been taught 
that God made all things out of nothing, but 
you have shown me that that even was not true 
and that the nothing out of which he made all 
things was himself; and I see, of course, that 
that is true. If, then, God could not make 
something out of nothing, I should be slow to 
believe that man can. 

And yet, as I suggested a moment ago, it is 
more than likely you will, on second thought, 
still be inclined to think he can. 

Indeed, I cannot think how that could 
possibly be. 

Well, let us see. A man may take a tree 
from the woods, saw it up, and, by thus changing 
its form, he may make a fence, a house, a wagon, 
a table, or either of many other things out of it. 

But that is not making them out of 
nothing. 

O, no, that is making them out of some- 
thing. 

I should think so; now please show me 
what I might, on second thought, think man 
could make out of nothing. Man may readily 
take different things and by changing their form 
or their combination, make many different 
things out of them, but not out of nothing. 

So, then, you are fully persuaded that man 
cannot make something out of nothing ? 



1 86 



I certainly am. 

I agree with you; man cannot produce any 
original thing out of nothing. And yet, you most 
likely was, all your life, accustomed to give 
yourself great credit for doing that very thing. 

Why, indeed! I am glad you qualified that 
by saying ''most likely," for I certainly never 
thought in all my life, of giving myself credit 
for a thing so preposterous as that of making 
somicthing out of nothing. Indeed, I cannot 
guess what you can possibly mean. 

Well, well! Now I will surprise you. I 
have a very vivid recollection of once being 
called upon to go down to Earth with a message. 
There was then prevailing a veiy dangerous and 
destructive epidemic, many people were pros- 
trate with it, many were dying, as it was 
alarmingly contageous. Great fear fell upon all 
the people, so that when one took the disease 
all deserted bim, and he was left to die. They 
were afraid even to bury him, unless by some 
who had had the disease. Now, there was, at 
this time, an important war going on in which 
the cause of liberty was largely at stake and, as 
we up here the especial friends of lib- 
erty, we wished to do all we could for 
its friends in this war. Of course the weak- 
er party fought for liberty and their homes, 
their families and their firesides, and they were 



/ 



i87 

being sorely pressed by the enemy, when this 
dreadful contagion began to spread itself in 
their ranks. Looking down upon the scene 
from here, the Lord Jesus was admonished of 
the danger to the friends of freedom; and see- 
ing that this dreadful disease, if allowed to take 
its course, would ruin their weak army and give 
success to their oppressors, he called to me 
quickly and said. Haste you down to Earth. Go 
to the reverend physician who is near to the 
great general, and work upon his mind night 
and day until you get him to understand that the 
only way the general can save his army is by 
infecting them with the contagion and doctoring 
them for the disease while they are otherwise 
in good health, and thus he will soon have plenty 
of nurses who have had a light attack, and 
have recovered frrm it, and then you, with 
your cohort of angels remain and help that army 
through till the disease has spent itself." So, 
I sped away to this army, and sought the phy- 
sician and chaplain of the general, and worked 
on his mind till I got him to think of inocula- 
tion, and got the fear of it out of his mind. 
Then I. went with him to the general. While 
he talked in one ear of the general, I talked in- 
the other, and thus succeeded in getting the 
doctor and the general to think they had adopt- 
ed a great expedient, or made a great discovery. 



88 



And the boldness of that remedy and its success 
has made the general a great name. Do you 
know who that doctor was? 

I certainly was the man myself, but I al- 
ways thought I devised that remedy myself, 
and never for a moment supposed any angel 
had anything to do with it? 

Just as I told you; you thought you had 
made something out of nothing. 

How so? 

Why, you thought you had made the thought 
that inoculation would save the army, out of 
nothing. But it took me four solid weeks to get 
it into your head, and I worked hard and steady 
both while you slept and while you were awake. 

Ah! I remember, I remember, I remember. 
I did dream that first. And yet I never dreamed 
it was the work of an angel. 

Now, perhaps, you are ready to understand 
that a man can no more originate a new thought 
out of nothing than he can make a new house 
out of nothing. He can take a number of ideas 
and combine them differently and make a new 
combination out of them, and thus out of two or 
more ideas he may make a third idea; but he 
cannot possibly produce an entirely nev^ and 
original idea out of nothing, no more thin he can 
make a world out of nothing. There have been a 
great many inventions among men who think 



1 89 

they produced a great many original thoughts 
or ideas; but if they only knew how long and 
how hard their good angels had worked on 
their dull and almost impenetrable intellects to 
crowd these ideas into their heads, they would 
not think they had developed any origina] 
thoughts. 

Indeed, and is it thus? Arid it must be 
so, for it is plain that man cannot make some- 
thing out of nothing. 

All man's ideas are acquired by education. 
He gets them of some other person. He manu- 
factures them by combining what he has in 
different forms, or they are conceived by intui- 
tion. But intuition is angel talk, or it is infor- 
mation received from some unseen spiritual 
intelligence, whose presence is unknown and 
unsuspicioned. All this information is inspira- 
tion. All received in that way in the 
Bible is inspiration, as is all that was 
directly spoken to the prophets, including all 
the conversations and all the imagery. 

But if these thoughts so derived are direct- 
ly from angels, why do they not speak out at 
once and let men know of their presence and de- 
sire to communicate.? 

What would you think of your horse or 
your dog, if he should ask why his master does 
not speak to him plainly in his horse or dog Ian- 



190 

guage, that he mig-ht understand him better. 

Well, possibly the master does not under- 
stand the horse or dog language. 

Might it not be as difficult for an angel to 
communicate with a man as for a man to com- 
municate with a horse? Or, might it not be even 
more difficult, since the horse can see the man 
and hear his voice, while the man can neither 
see nor hear the angel? 

So, so! I should have known that, but I 
have beed misled in having heard that angels 
talked to Moses and the prophets in the olden 
times. 

So they did; that is, a very few of them did, 
who had learned their language with great effort; 
and many are now studying modern language, 
with a view to talking to the people as soon as 
the time shall come, the time appointed of God, 
when men and angels shall freely associate and 
communicate with each other. That is during 
the blessed judgment day, when universal 
righteousness shall prevail, and men shall see 
God. "For without righteousness no man shall 
see God." 

But I supposed that meant in Heaven, and 
applied to the angels. 

O, yes, you located everything in Heaven. 
Why, then, did it not say "angel" instead of 
''man?" You must not suppose when it says 



191 



man that it means angel. A man is not an 
angel, and it would be just as near proper to 
say --ant" and mean ''man," as to say "man" 
and mean "angel." The meaning is that men 
will become righteous, and when they do, it will 
be as common to see angels and God as it is now 
to see men. For angels, or glorified saints, who 
will look just alike, will be at your (their) hand 
all the time to protect and instruct them, so 
they make no mistake and have no trouble. 

There is one thing that seems a little pe- 
culiar to me, and that is, that all the ideas of 
inventors that are purely original, have been 
communicated to them by inspiration. Many of 
these inventors were not very good men. I had 
always thought that inspiration certainly would 
not be conferred on any but very good men. So 
it seems strange to learn that all inventors, and 
everybody else who has really developed a new 
idea, has got it by inspiration. Is anyone ever 
inspired with falsehood.-* 

Most assuredly they are. There are many 
demons, or false angels; all the hosts of Satan 
are of that kind. Their home is the atmosphere 
of the Earth. They are playful, spiteful, vin- 
dictive, malicious, and mirthful, assuming any 
mood and doing anything either to amuse them- 
selves or to annoy their victims. They 
find the same difficulty in communicating 



192 



with men that good angels do. They have 
availed themselves in the latter times of a spirit- 
rapping process, which they succeeded in get- 
ting partially understood by men, and they have 
exhibited considerable demonstrations of power, 
but have been able to enlist in their wickedness 
only a few persons, but little if any better than 
themselves. These have turned their seances, 
as they have called them, into speculations and 
to such an extent have they practiced fraud and 
imposition for money, that the whole scheme 
has fallen into disrepute. These Satanic dem- 
onstrations were to be expected at this time. 
His power was shown largely at the introduction 
of both of the former dispensations. This was 
particularly true when the gospel was introduced, 
as Satan thought that was the time to exert all 
his power. All the forces he could control 
were called into requisition. Now, at the begin- 
ning of the everlasting gospel, when his 
power is about to be suppressed, it is 
natural for him to exert all the power 
he can command to maintain his position to the 
last moment possible. Hence it is that nothing 
short of the presence and restraining influence 
of the saints will keep affairs on the Earth in an 
orderly condition. It is confidently expected 
by us that this influence will be such as to pre- 



193 

vent any such outbreaks as occurred at the 
death of Jesus. 

How then shall a person tell if he be influ- 
enced by an angel, whether it is a good or a bad 
angel? and whether he is to believe and be 
guided by it or not ? 

The greatest care is to be exercised, and 
no one must take for granted as true what an 
angel says to him any more than he would if it 
were said to him by a person. Nor is any one 
to have the least fear of an angel because he is 
an angel. They are to be regarded as being 
perfectly harmless, except if they are wicked 
they may deceive you, but will not do you any 
bodily harm. You must determine whether 
what they say is true or not just the same as 
you would if told by a man instead of an ang«l; 
and listen to their words just as calmly. 

Jn regard to the inspiration of inventors, I 
desired to know why wicked men were so often 
thus inspired and good men were not. 

Good men there are none. Wickedness 
differs in men only in degree; and sometimes 
those who make the greatest pretensions to be- 
ing good are the worst men in the community; 
men of very narrow and illiberal minds, full of 
vanity, egotism and selfishness. They want 
everybody to do just as they say, and seem 
really to think that God will punish those who 



194 

do not please them. Well, the quality and 
quantity of their self-esteem is simply awful. 
But it is not a question of goodness or badness; 
it is a question of human progress. Some men, 
though morally bad — and all are that — are so 
constituted mentally as to be susceptible to an- 
gelic intercourse, while others are not. Those 
who can be reached must be, no matter what 
may be their moral character. They are not 
called upon to teach morals but to produce in- 
ventions. The great matter of human progress 
must go on, and every available agent must be 
made use of whose abilities can be made to ad- 
vance the cause. *'0f myself I can do nothing.'* 
In answer to your second question, why did Jesus 
make the above statement, and was he not the very 
God.'* Jesus was sent on a mission as the agent of 
^God,to do a certain work in a certain way. He was 
not to vary in the slightest degree from his in- 
struction. The power to do anything needed to 
complete that work was to be furnished him. 
Jesus had about the same power within himself 
as any other man would have. But there was 
in attendance upon him at all ordinary times, a 
host of angels who, though unseen and unknown 
by anybody else, were ready to do his bidding, 
and every miracle performed by him was the 
work of unseen angels. 

This greatly surprises me. I had always 



195 

supposed that God, the Father, and Christ, the 
son, were one. 

And so they were one. And so they are 
one. Even as I and thou art one, Jesus says, 
*'Holy Father, keep through Thine own name 
those whom Thou hast given me, that they may 
be one as we are one. That they may be 
one in us." This showes you how God and 
Christ are one, just the same as any other two 
persons may be one. That is, in quality, com- 
position, purpose, work, design, purity, love, 
goodness, and all that. But certainly not in 
individuality, God is as seperate and distinct an 
individual from His son as any other father is 
distinct from his son; and only pure lunacy, Sa- 
tanic delusion, could ever have caused anybody 
to hold otherwise, Christ knew only what he 
learned, his mind was more than ordinarily sus- 
ceptive of angelic impressions, and these heav- 
enly instructors supplied him with all the infor- 
mation needed to secure the object of his 
mission. Now, if God the Father, and Christ, 
the son, had been so intimately connected as to 
be one individual, then one of them could not 
die and the other live, so, in Christ's death all of 
God would have died and all the people would 
have lived, but the fact was, all of God lived; 
and all the people- died, just the reverse of your 
trinitarian idea. "For we thus jndgQ thaL 



196 ^ 

if one died for all, then were all dead.'' 
The apostle here teaches that Jesus died instead 
of all mankind, and in his death as their substi- 
tute, they all died; not that God died, if so 
there would have been no living God during the 
thirty-seven hours in which Christ's animation 
was suspended. No man can reasonably hold 
to such a doctrine as that. Jesus was born into 
the world with the immortal God-life principle 
in him, which made it impossible "that he should 
be holden of death." By assuming the sins of 
the world he made it possible for him to die, or 
to permit himself to be killed; for even then he 
could not have died without being killed, and 
he could not have been killed if he had wished 
to live. For, said he, ^'Thinkest thou that I 
cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall 
presently give me more than twelve legions 
of angels. But, how then shall the scriptures 
be fulfilled, that thus it must be." Now, if 
in himself he was all powerful, all mighty, 
what need of twelve legions of angels.? 
I will illustrate by giving you a little piece of 
history. Jesus had arrived at Bethany, hav- 
ing been sent for by Martha and Mary on ac- 
count of the sickness of their brother Lazarus. 
They were weil acquainted with Jesus, and had 
great faith in him as their Messiah; so when 
Lazarus was very sick, they thought of Jesus as 



i 



197 

the only physician that could cure him, and 
Hurried off a messenger to bring him quickly 
before their brother should die. The messenger 
returned and told them that he had found Jesus, 
and that he would come, but he had not been 
able to prevail on him to accompany the messen- 
ger. Now, the sisters knew that there had been 
a conspiracy formed to arrest Jesus if he should 
appear again in that section, and they had great 
doubt as to the wisdom of asking him to come; 
but under the sad circumstances of the ap- 
proaching death of their beloved brother, and 
feeling sure that Jesus alone could save him, 
they at last yielded to their earnest wish, and 
sent for him. But when they saw their very 
loving and much-loved brother, the dear friend 
of Jesus, sinking in death, and Jesus not yet 
come, their sorrow and grief was overpowering. 
They so bewailed and lamented their sad situa- 
tion which others could not understand, that 
their lamentations attracted the attention of the 
people even in Jerusalem; and many went out 
to sympathize with them and to try to console 
them in their unbounded grief. But the sisters 
dare not say, We weep not so much for our dear 
dying brother, as because our dearest friend* 
Jesus, who alone could save him, is proscribed, 
and dare not come to us now in our sore afiflic- 
tion. Oh! if Jesus dare but come how quickly 



198 



would our sorrow be dissipated. (My dear, 
impenitent friend, how true would that be of 
you if Jesus were allowed by you to come in 
and sup with you.) But Jesus tarried yet four 
days before starting to go to Lazarus; not for 
fear of the Jews, for he knew no fear. 
It was that a mighty miracle might be perform- 
ed, so that the Jews might be excited to frenzy 
and so consummate his death. "Then Martha, 
as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, 
went and met him, but Mary sat still in the 
house." The greatest care and secrecy was ob- 
served for fear of his arrest, Jesus keeping out 
of sight and sending secretly to Martha, who 
did not even dare to tell her sister for fear of ex- 
citing the curiosity of the Jews present, and 
thus leading to the discovery of Jesus's presence 
in the neighborhood. Martha, full of sorrow 
for his failure to arrive in time, attributing that 
to the danger of coming, exclaimed, **Lord, 
hadst thou been here my brother had not died." 
Jesus said unto her, thy brother shall rise again. 
Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise 
again at the resurrection at the last day, 
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, 
and the life, he that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live. 
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall 
never die. Believeth thou this.?" "She called 



199 

Mary, her sister, secretly, saying. The Master 
is come and calleth for thee. As soon as she 
heard, she arose quickly and came unto him. 
Now Jesus was not yet come into the town but 
was in that place where Martha met him. The 
Jews then, which were with her in the house and 
comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she 
arose hastily and went out, followed her, saying. 
She goeth to the grave to weep there. Then, 
when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw 
him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, 
Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not 
died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, 
and the Jews also weeping who came with her, 
he, groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 
And said, Where have ye laid him? They say 
unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. 
Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him. 
And some of them said. Could not this man, 
who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused 
that even this man should not have died.? Jesus 
therefore again groaning in himself, cometh to 
the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon 
it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, 
the sister of him that was dead, said unto him: 
Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he has been 
dead four days. Jesus saith unto her. Said I 
not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe, thou 
shouldst see the glory of God? Then they took 



200 



away the stone from the place where the dead 
was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and 
said, -^Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast 
heard me. And I know that Thou hearest me 
always; but because of the people who stand 
here I said it, that they may believe that Thou 
hast sent me." Why did he not say: ''My 
friends, I am God the Father, father of myself. 
I am here to show you how easily I can raise 
the dead, and when I by my almighty power, 
have raised Lazarus from the dead, you will have 
reason to fear and reverence me." Well he did 
not talk that way, because that was not true. 
But he saw himself surrounded with many an J 
powerful angels, and had been instructed by 
them as to what he should say and do, and then 
he knew what they would do. So, he prayed 
to the Father, showing that he depended on 
Him entirely as the source of all power and au- 
thority. He did not ask angels to roll back the 
stone, there were men there who could do 
that. Jesus neither did that, nor asked God to 
do it. But said. Take ye away the stone. 
When it was removed he stood before the open 
sepulcher. Lazarus lay in open view of many. 
And now all was silence, awe, suspense and ex- 
pectancy. The angels of Satan, who hoped to 
interfere and prevent any strange thing occur- 
ing, had been crowded back by the overpower- 



20I 



ing- force of Heaven's hosts, who had been sent 
to preserve order, to restrain the passion of the 
Jews present, and to see that Satan's hosts did 
not prevent the work in hand from being accom- 
plished. At this time I and my strong and pow- 
erful coadjutor stepped forward, I to the left 
side and my assistant to the right side of Laz- 
arus, and awaited the order of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. And ''he cried with a loud voice, Laz- 
arus, come forth." And we immediately raised, 
him up, blew the breath of life into his nostrils, 
''And he that was dead came forth, bound hand 
and foot with grave clothes." Thus this great- 
est of miracles was wrought, and so were all 
other miracles wrought. But you will probably 
ask, Does not this militate against* the Godhood 
of Christ, the Lord.!* No, by no means, for he 
was then the son of man, the agent of God, a 
prophet as any other prophet. But lunce he has 
been spiritually born, regenerated, made "the 
Son of God with power by the resurrection from 
the dead," it is quite different with him. He is 
now a priest ministering at the altar of Jeho- 
vah, reconciling men to God, or making men 
good, which is the same thing. He will 
be a king in the kingdom (judgment), 
world to come, or third ever, He is a prophet 
(on Earth) first, a priest (in Heaven) second, 
a King (on Earth) third, when ^he shall sit on 



202 



the throne of his father David, and of his king- 
dom there shall be no end. In regard to your 
third question, Why must Jesus die? I will very 
briefly answer it now, as I think from what has 
been said you will have little difficulty in under- 
standing it, and can readily fill every ellipsis 
from your own store of knowledge. 

Will you be pleased to give me the true 
force of the expression of the apostle: "If one 
died for all, then were all dead?" 

The idea is this, as I have already shown: 
God had sworn to give the land and everlasting 
life to all who kept the law. He had also sworn 
to destroy the life of all who failed to keep the 
\d.w, unless those living should accept the Mes- 
siah when he should come; aud if they did ac- 
cept him, then he should give the land and the 
life to them. Now, God was thus sworn to kill 
all who should reject Christ. Christ came, 
they all rejected him, even his diciples, his 
mother and all the rest forsook him and fled, 
thus involving themselves in this wrath to come. 
God must destroy their lives. The last mo- 
ment came and not a being on Earth had ac- 
cepted Christ, so every being on Eartji must die. 
Jesus comes forward, offers Himself as a substi- 
tute for them, is accepted, dies in their stead, 
and, in his death they all die. Thus, God's 



203 

oath to kill all who reject him is performed. 
**For if one died for all, then were all dead." 

But who was this all? 

This is easy to determine. It is plain, first, 
that no one can die instead of a person who is 
already dead; second, no one can die instead of 
a person who is not yet born; third, no one can 
die instead of any other person unless the other 
person is condemned to die that same death at 
that same time; that is, no one can die the spir- 
itual death to save another from dying 
the natural death, and no one can die the natural 
death to save another from dying the spiritual 
death. But if any were condemned to die the 
natural death at a certain time, one might, with 
the consent of the executioner, die in their stead, 
thus saving them from death at that moment; 
but this would not keep them from dying at 
another time, but only at that particular time. 
Now, if Jesus died instead of anybody at all, 
that body was condemned to die that same 
death at that same time; and if Jesus had not 
died instead of that body, then whoever it was 
must have died for himself. Jesus saved every- 
one from dying for whom he died, or he died for 
nobody. This conclusion is inevitable. Then, 
the all^ for whom he died, were the all who 
were condemned to die at that time; if 
there were no such all, then he died for 



204 



nobody. But, he could not die instead of 
anybody already dead, nor of anybody else un- 
less th^y would have died if he had not died in 
their stead. You were not then living-, so he 
did not die instead of you. He did die for you, 
for, if he had not died, your progenitors would 
have died and you would never have been born. 
As all living persons on Earth were condemned 
to die at that time, Jesus died instead of every 
living man, woman and child then on Earth. 
That is the all for whom he died, and he saved 
them from death at all times, made it possible 
for them to become the sons of God and thus 
secure eternal life by simply accepting it from 
him. ''Jesus died and paid it all, all the debt I 
owe." The great work in hand is to subdue and 
overcome Satan, reduce him to submission 
and remove all sin from the universe, so that 
God shall be all in all; or, so will all be God or 
good. Now, to do this, to defeat Satan, a pow- 
er wholly invulnerable to the attacks of Satan 
must be produced. Adam's race was chosen to 
produce it from. But, before it can be start- 
ed as a spiritual power, able to meet Satan on 
the plane of spiritual, the only place where he 
could be met and defeated, it must have a fa- 
ther. This father must be a spirit. It must be 
a spirit produced from a perfect man, but in or- 



205 

der to have that, there must be one man per- 
fected; he must keep the law and fulfill it as a 
test of his perfection; then he would be sinless 
and, being sinless, he could not die. But he 
must die and rise again in order to be a spirit, 
otherwise he could not be a spiritual father of a 
host of immortal spirits who must be produced, 
and with whom Satan is to be overcome. Je- 
sus was this perfect man. He kept the law 
perfectly and, being without sin, he never would 
have died of his own accord. So the Jews un- 
derstood it, for, "The people answered him, 
we have heard out of the law that Christ abid- 
eth forever; and how sayest thou the son of man 
must be lifted up.?" Who is this son of man? 
*'Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will 
not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for- 
ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It 
shall be established* forever as the moon." 
*'The Lord hath sworn and will not repent.'' 
''Thou art a priest forever after the order of 
Melchizedek." ''For unto us a child is born, 
unto us a son is given, and the government shall 
be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be 
called Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, 
the Everlasting Father, the' Prince of Peace. 
Of the increase of his government and peace 
there shall be no end. Upon the throne of 
David, and upon his kingdom to order it, and to 



206 



establish it with judgment and with justice frorr 
henceforth even forever." They shall dwell ir 
the land, they and their children, forever, anc 
my servant David shall be their prince forever.' 
*'And in the days of these kings shall the Goc 
of Heaven set up a kingdom, which shall nevei 
be destroyed. His domininion is an everlasting 
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his 
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." 
Thus, he should sit upon the throne of his 
father David, and of his kingdom there should 
be no end. So, the Jews were surprised to hear 
him say that the son of man must be lifted up, 
and felt that he could not mean himself if he 
was the Christ. The Christ could not die. But 
the Christ must die in order to become an im- 
mortal spirit so as to have the fertilizing, life- 
begetting power, to beget immortal spirits of 
Adam's race; who should be born of God, Christ 
as the father, and man as the mother, at the res- 
urrection, being begotten by the word, born by 
the resurrection, sons of God with the perfect 
man Christ as their father and head. They 
would grow up into God and be a power great 
enough to overcome Satan. He must die; but 
he was sinless, so he co7ild not die. To enable 
him to die he freely took upon him the sins, not 
of one man, but of the world, and died for 
all,the just for the unjust. Because of this impera- 



20/ 

tive neces3ity,because there was in nature no other 
possible way and because sin must be annihilated, 
the smiling-, loving, admiring face of Jehovah 
was hid behind the dark cloud of the inevitable. 
The angelic hosts were withdrawn. The dia- 
bolical powers of Satanic darkness were unre- 
strained and finding, as they thought, the hosts 
of God off their guard, they rushed in, filled the 
rulers with violence, venom and mad hate. 
And then the purpose of these rulers which 
Satan had been hatching for some time in their 
wicked, jealous hearts, now fixed to destroy his 
life, they determined to execute immediately 
with relentless energy. They were unacquaint- 
ed with Jesus personally, and were not allowed 
to inqureof any o'ther person. ''Those that Thou 
gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost 
but the son of perdition." They sought some 
means of finding Jesus. Anxious to make the 
arrest as quickly as possible, they detertermined 
it should be done at night, and were wonder- 
ing how they should find Jesus without causing 
a tumult, for the most of the people were not in 
this, and the leaders or ruler of the Jews found it 
expedient to move cautiously so as not to ex- 
cite opposition or resistance from the crowds, or 
they might be stoned themselves and their vic- 
tim escape. Now, while in a quandary as to 
how they should find Jesus, there suddenly en- 



208 



tered a man who agreed to take the reward offered 
for him — the thirty pieces of silver — and lead 
their posse to the place where he could be found 
almost alone. The offer was gladly and Satan- 
ically accepted, the silver paid over, and the 
posse immediately sent to make the arrest. Je- 
sus, expecting that they would be there, know- 
ing that Judas had determined to get that re- 
ward, and knowing, too, that he had gone and 
how anxious the rulers were to make the arrest 
as this would be their last chance, had retired to 
a lonely place, his disciples, but no one else, be- 
ing near. Thus all trouble would be avoided 
and no one be hurt. No one thought for a mo- 
ment that the real Christ could be put to death, 
even Judas expected him to escape and he thought 
they would b 2 thirty pieces of silver ahead, which 
he would have, even if Jesus should thereafter 
refuse to recognize him. But Jesus had placed 
the disciples on guard duty as soldiers, and in-, 
structed them to watch for the coming of the 
enemy. At the end of the first watch he came and 
found his guards asleep. They were Peter, 
James and John, the three most earnest, bold, 
loving and determined of his soldiers. His pick- 
ets asleep; so he finds them, ''and saith to them, 
What! could ye not watch with (for) me one 
hour.-* Watch and pray that ye enter not into 
temptation; the spirit indeed is willing," but you 



209 

do not, can not, realize that this is the last night 
we shall be together; though I have told you 
"The shepherd shall be smitten and the sheep 
of the flock shall be scattered." And placing 
them again on duty, *'He went away the second 
time and prayed, saying, O, my Father, if this 
cup may not pass away from me, except I 
drink it, Thy will be done." Oppressed 
with the intense feeling of horror at the 
situation, seeing that the mighty effort which 
for three years and a half he had been making, 
was about to fail, that centuries of inexpressible 
misery, persecution, woe and wretchedness must 
fall upon the whole Jewish people, whom he had 
sought to save, until their sins should be visited 
upon them double for all their iniquities." 
Grasping in one appalling view the whole situa- 
tion, he was overwhelmed with the grief of a 
world, and he prayed the same prayer over and 
over again. Oh! must it be? Oh! must it be.-* 
Oh! must it be? Is there no other way, must 
all these calamities befall the world, must all 
this people be involved in them? Weep not for 
me, ye mothers of Judea; but weep for your- 
selves and your children. "O, my Father, if it 
be possible let this" (thing not be). ''Then 
cometh he to his disciples and saith to them, 
'Sleep on now and take your rest; behold the 
hour is at hand, and the son of man is betrayed 



210 



into the hands oi sinners. Behold he is at hand 
that doth betray me!' And while he yet spake, 
lo! Judas came, and with him a great multitude 
with swords and clubs, from the chief 
priests and elders of the people. Now, he that 
betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whom- 
soever I shall kiss, that same is he; hold him 
fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus and said, 
Hail, Master, and kissed him. And Jesus said 
unto him, **Thou wretch, thou brute, thou 
scoundrel! You seek my life, you would have 
me murdered, you deceiver. I will call down 
the vengance of Heaven upon you, vile vaga- 
bond. I will damn your immortal soul eternal- 
ly. I will punish you forever in a lake of fire 
and brimstone, you merciless traitor. 

Is that what Jesus said.-* I do not find it in 
the record. 

No, Jesus did not say that. If he had been 
a bad man he might have said something like 
it. Contrast this language with what he did 
say, and you will see the difference between 
him and a bad man. He said, mildly, lovingly, 
graciously, "Friend, wherefore art thou comei*" 
Ah! that is the language of a God, a forgiving, 
loving God, ever our God, the Lord, the Christ, 
And behold Peter, who thought the war 
had now commenced and was bound to 
show himself equal to the demands of the occa- 



211 



sion and earn for himself a general's commission, 
drew one of the two swords there was in the 
party, and cut away right and left like a mad 
man till he struck of the ear of a servant of the 
high priest. The wrong man, of course, poor 
servant! he was thereby coercion, not by choice. 
Of course Satan would use Peter to inflict in- 
jury on one whose sympathies were against him, 
though he was on Satan's side to all appearances. 
"Then Jesus said unto him. Put up again thy 
sword, for if we take the sword we will all per- 
ish with the sword, and no one will escape. But 
now, I alone am to suffer, Thinkest thou that I 
cannot now pray the Father, and he shall pres- 
ently give me more than twelve legions of an- 
gels? But how then shall the plan of salvation 
succeed? If I were saved, all else would 
be lost. But all this was done that 
the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfiled. 
Then all the diciples forsook him and fled." 
Do not for one moment suppose that Jesus en- 
tertained the slightest feeling of unkindness to- 
ward Judas, this poor victim of a Satanic delu- 
sion. He knew to whom the blame belonged. 
He knew the fountain head of all this trouble. 
He knew the necessities and exigencies of the 
case, and he knew that Judas was but an irre- 
sponsible puppet in the hands of Satan. He 
also knew that Judas could not have been that 



12 



if he had been a good man, but he was not. 
Yet, the great soul of Jesus, overflowing with 
boundless love and pity for ^his poor, deluded 
embodiment of avarice and g^reed, beheld with 
pitying eye the cruel deceiver approach and, 
with a slimy kiss, try to impose on Jesus his vile 
pretense of love, while bestraying him to his en- 
emies and to his death. His trial came, and 
oh! such a trial! Acquitted by the court, but 
given to the mob. He is hurried to the field of 
death. The murderous nails are driven through 
his hands and through his feet, and veritable 
demons swing the thus laden cross erect, and 
down into the pit it drops. Mangled, torn, and 
bleeding, he hangs suspended upon the cross, 
writhing in all the agony of crucifixion. Borne 
down with the weight of the sins of the world, 
suffering the excruciating torture of bodily pain 
and the taunts and ieers of those for whom he 
is dying, appalled by the prophetic vision of the 
awful calamities and horrible doom which must 
befall his persecutors and their children in the 
centuries to come, and groaning under the 
weight of multiplied insults and outrages, in 
the agony of despair (for he was man in all the 
possibilities of suffering, and in none of these 
was he God now, for he had taken upon him the 
sin of the world, thus becoming a sinner and 
God cannot be a sinner) nay, in aH the 



213 

agony of despair, he exclaimed, "My God, my 
God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" Even God 
had forsaken him. It could not be otherwise. 
God and the angels. "How could they look up- 
on such a scene and permit it to proceed.'* He 
must tread the winepress of God's wrath alone. 
Not a soul, not a man, not a woman, not an an- 
gel must manifest the slightest sympathy for 
him. "He died and paid it all." No partner- 
ship in this. His is the only name given under 
heaven whereby we must be saved. Who would 
want any other name.-* Who would want any 
other savior.? Who else of all the inhabitants 
of God's universe could be such a savior. He 
died that we might live, and we live because he 
died. If he had not died we never would have 
lived, He died of his own free will and choice 
that they who will believe on him might not 
perish, but have life everlasting. Let us believe, 
let us love, let us adore this grand and gracious 
Savior, and thus we shall live, and life will be 
worth the living. 

It occurred to me as singular that you put 
that surprising utterance into the mouth of Je- 
sus, the severe denunciation of Judas; but I 
saw, of course, that you wished to contrast his 
gracious treatment of Judas with what worldly 
ambition would have done, and in this way to 
bring out in bold relief, the exalted goodness of 



214 

the character of Christ. But whether that was 
all you designed to do or not I am not able to 
determine, 

I had the additional purpose to attract no- 
tice to the end of Judas who, we are informed* 
"went and hanged himself, and falling head- 
long all his bowels gushed out." Now, the 
writer does not tell us that the immortal soul of 
Judas was consigned to punishment, which he 
certainly should have done if he had known that 
to be a fact. No more important truth could 
have been stated than that, and if the writer had 
ever heard of such a thing, he is wholly 
culpable if he failed to tell the world of it. 
If there ever was a man with an immortal soul 
who deserved to have that soul eternally pun- 
ished, Judas was the man; and if such a fate 
awaited him, inspiration should have known it, 
and instead of taking so much pains to tell us of 
his bowels, it would have been immensely more 
important to us to tell us of his soul. As the 
writers entirely neglected to do that, the infer- 
ence is inevitable that inspiration never heard of 
such a thing as an immortal soul, or its being in 
any danger of future punishment. This infer- 
ence is deduced with equal force from every 
other passage in the Bible where the punish- 
ment of immortal souls ought to be mentioned, 
if such a punishment had any existence. No- 



215 



where in the inspired word is immortal soul 
mentioned; nor is there any hint at a plan to 
save one nor at the need of one's being 
saved. The Bible is designed to eradicate sin, 
and not to save imaginary immortal souls. 
I have before remarked that the world to come 
is that age which shall immediately follow this 
present gospel age as one year follows another. 
It is not Heaven more than the judgment is 
Heaven. It is the third or last world, ever or 
age of human existence on the Earth, and will 
never end. It is the kingdom of the son of David 
whose kingdom will be without end. 

Will not the Earth be burned up and the 
elements melt with fervent heat, as affirmed by 
Peter? 

The Earth will be burned up, and the ele- 
ments will melt with fervent heat. That is, 
whatever Peter meant will take place if he spoke 
by inspiration. But that is future. And if we 
are to determine what it means, we must do so 
by consulting the past, and, from what has taken 
place since it was written, determine if we can 
what will take place. Knowing that Peter 
meant what will happen, we may thus tell what 
he meant. It will not do to say he meant a 
certain thing, and on this hypothesis predicate 
the statement that the thing will be because he 
said so; and then, because it does not occur, 



J lo 



say that he did not tell the truth. We now 
know that the solid ground, or planet Earth, 
will never be burned up. Hence, Peter did not 
mean that. We think of no natural elements 
except the air, and we know the air will not melt 
with fervent heat, nor with any other heat; so, 
he did not mean air. What did he mean.^ 
The scripture treats of religion, not soil; of 
morals, not air. The expressions rivers, sea, 
earth, elements, etc., are figures of speech rep- 
resenting a condition prevailing either at a par- 
ticular time or place on the globe. The expres- 
sion, **and there shall be no more sea" does not 
refer to the ocean, nor to water at all. 
The word "sea" would be better understood if 
translated waste, as vast waste of waters, a vast, 
non-productive expanse, a vast region that pro- 
duces nothing, as the sea; no religious vegeta- 
tion, a barren waste. Such is heathen countries. 
Hence, the expression "there shall be no more 
sea," simply means that heathenism shall cease 
to exist, be no more. 

But if heathenism means sea, what is the 
meaning of rivers.!^ 

By rivers is meant Mohammedanism. The 
sea, the rivers and the earth include all of the 
globe. So heathenism, Mohammedanism and 
Christianity embrace all the religions. Heath- 
ism is the sea; Mohammedanism is the rivers; 



217 

so, Christianity is the earth, or, that out of 
which God produces religious vegetation, or out 
of which is taken a people for his name. This 
earth (Christianity) shall be burned up. 
How? By the persecution, torture and suffer- 
ing which afflicts its votaries growing out 
of the error they have taught and believed, 
the errof being the thing to be destroyed. But 
since every doctrine, precept and practice of 
the Christian church has embraced vastly more 
error than truth, to eradicate the error is simply 
to eradicate the system and replace it with a 
new one. That is what is meant by burning up 
the Earth. "The elements shall melt," is a 
figure meaning that Mohammedanism and heath- 
enism shall be similarly destroyed. Heathenism 
being the elements, weak and beggarly elements, 
of which the apostle spoke. Thus it is seen 
that the fire with which the Earth is to be de- 
stroyed is the same fire, which is and has been 
destroying everything that has been destroyed 
since destruction set in, and is the on\j destroy- 
ing element in nature. The only thing that 
ever has, or ever can, destroy anything. We 
call that fire sin. And it will continue 
to destroy till it destroys itself, and 
then destruction will end. Everything will 
then have become eternal in its nature. For 
everything will be God, and God will be all in 



2l8 



all. Hence, everything in nature will be brought 
into perfect harmony with the will of God. 

Now, may I ask what is to become of those 
who have died out of Christ; namely, the heath- 
en, the Mohammedan, the Jew, the incorrigible 
sinner? 

The Bible teaches two resurrections. First, 
that in Christ, the spiritual, of which Christ was 
the first fruits and with whom it began. It has 
been going on ever since. Everyone who has 
died in Chrisj; has been raised again an immortal 
spirit. That is, they have not died at all. The 
death of the body has been the birth of the spirit. 
As the egg rots when the fowl is hatched, as the 
acorn rots when the tree is born, as the grain 
rots when the spire is born, so the animal body 
rots when the spirit is born. The resurrection 
is the second birth, since no one can enter 
a world except by birth. You had to be 
born of the flesh to enter a flesh word, 
In like manner you will have to be born of the 
spirit to enter the spirit world. There is 
no other way to get into a world. When God 
wanted to enter this flesh world he had 
to be born in to it. When he want- 
ed to re-enter he spirit world, he had to 
die, and be born again into it. What God 
cannot do, man need not try. I said those who 
have died in Christ have not died at all. "I am 



219 

the resurrection and the life; he that believeth 
in me, hough he were dead, yet shall he live. 
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall 
never die, Believest thou that?" Those who 
do not believe in Christ inevitably die, and are 
dead to all intents and purposes. Dead as a 
stone, the dead know not anything, "for the liv- 
ing know that they shall die, but the dead 
know riot anything, neither have they any more 
reward. For that which befalleth the sons of 
men, bafalleth beasts; even one thing befall- 
eth them; as one dieth, so dieth the 
other; yea, they have all one breath 
(life), so that a man hath no pre-emi- 
nence over the beast. All go unto 
one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to 
dust again.*' But this does not prevent God 
from resurrecting man and leaving the beast 
unresurrected. It renders a resurrection neces- 
sary if the man ever lives again after he has 
died. Hence, the Bible does not teach the 
heathen dogma of the immortality of the soul, 
which is not true, but does teach that there are 
two resurrections which could not be if the soul 
was immortal. Now, the second resurrection is 
on this wise. The man has lived and died in 
a sin world, in Satan's kingdom, died in his 
sins; he is, for the present, a useless quantity. 
Nothing can \^e done with him, except to lay 



220 



him away in sleep, the sleep of death. It is a 
dreamless sleep, "for there is no work, nor de- 
vice, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in hell whither 
thou goest." Thus he sleeps to await his resur- 
rection to judgment. The judgment cannot 
come till the righteous judge is enthroned in 
power, and this cannot be till sin is 
extirpated, eliminated, eradicated, annihi- 
lated, till there is no sin and no sinner. 
Till Satan is conquered, has returned to his al- 
legiance to God and has become a good and 
loyal subject of the Lord, the Christ. When 
there is no longer any sin or temptation to sin 
in all the Earth, and the saints conduct the gov- 
ernment, or judgment, those who have died in 
their sins and who sleep in their graves, shall 
come forth, not all at once, nor all in the same 
order, but ''each in his own order." "Behold, 
O my people, I will Qp^n your graves and cause 
you to come up out oi your graves and bring 
you into the land of Israel. And ye shall kno\V 
that I am the Lord when I have opened your 
graves, O my people, and brought you up out of 
your graves, and shall put my spirit in you and 
ye shall live, and I will place you in your own 
land; then shall ye know that I, the Lord, have 
spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord." Now, 
this is the resurrection to judgment. I am not 
telling you how Earth's commentators dispose 



221 



of this text. I care nothing for their exegesis. 
"V^erily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears 
my word, and beb'eves on Him that sent me, 
hath everlasting life, and shall, not come into 
judgment; but has passed out of death into life. 
For, as the Father has life in Himself, so He 
gave also to the son to have life in himself. 
And He gave him authority to execute judg- 
mcnl also, because he is a son of man. (The 
only perfect son of man). Marvel not at this; 
for an hour is coming in which all that are in 
their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth; the}/ that have done good to the resur- 
rection of life (applying to the good then dead, 
no other good would be in their graves); and 
they that did evil to the resurrection of judg- 
ment (including all who have died in their sins. ) 
Their resurrection will proceed on this wise: 
The time having come for the resurrection of an 
individual, one of the saints will be sent to at- 
tend him. He will be instructed thus: 

"Here. John, I am about to resurrect your 
old friend Jones who has slept in his grave these 
seven thousand years. You will remember 
your old partner Jones, with whom you did 
business on Earth seven thousand years ago." 

"Yes, I well remember him. I sought with 
such arguments as 1 could command to persuade 
him to repent and believe and accept the salva- 



222 



tion of the gospel. But he was worldlj^-minded 
and preferred the frivolities of sin to the hope of 
Heaven. He was a man of good business capac- 
ities and, at times, very successful. He had 
left to him considerable wealth, and in early life 
had added to it, and, for a time, lived in afflu- 
ence; but his fortune was largely wasted. Yes^ 
yes, I well remember his sad death. His follies 
had compelled a dissolution of our partnership 
and, with the remnant of a fortune left him, he 
took his very interesting and lovely family and 
removed to a farm at the earnest solicitation of 
his lovely daughters, his amiable wife and his 
noble sons. They hoped to cure him of his one 
bad habit, intemperance, which shrouded their 
otherwise happy lives in gloom. But he con- 
tinued to drink periodically. He had brought 
his last load of wheat to town, had sold it, taken 
the cash and gone up town; some hours after 
he was seen to start home in a state of beastly 
intoxication. His horses were spirited and 
high strung. The team was found stranded 
between two oak . trees, the wagon badly 
broken. A search found the owner down 
by a bridge, near the road-side, his 
neck broken, and himself badly bruised 
torn and bleeding but dead. His money was 
gone. He was picked up by tender hands and 
given a decent burial. His poor wife never re- 



223 

covered from the shock, but soon after died in 
despair. She had been a very amiable, refined, 
intelh'gent and fashionable lady. But I need 
say no more." 

'*No, she lies by her husband's side, lon^ ago 
forgotten on Earth, but not forgotten here. 
She will soon be recalled to life to join her 
husband here. He will not be a drunkard then. 
Go now, to the cemetery where you saw him 
buried. Stand where the old head-stone stood, 
and he shall hear the voice of Deity, saying. 
Come forth. And he shall arise and thou shalt 
take him by both his hands, and say to him, 
*'My dear brother Jones, how glad I am to see 
you; glad you have at last awakened from 
your long sleep. But say thou not one word 
till I have taught you where you are and what 
you are to do here. Behold the grandeur and 
glory of Earth now. See what a wonderful 
change seven thousand years have made in it 
since you went to sleep.' " 

'''Seven thousand years, did you say.? Have 
I slept so long.!* It were to me but a moment." 

**And yet, 'tis gone, and you are raised 
from the dead to die no more if you but heed 
my warning voice and sin not, for sin kills in 
this world as surely as in the one where it killed 
you. But we do not sin here, and so we do not 
die. I am sent to you, to take charge of you 



S24 



md instruct you, so that you sin not and die not, 
for death now would be annihilation." 

"I will certainly observe the greatest 
care, for I now behold a world in which 
one must enjoy a life worth living. 
The world is beautiful beyond all possibility of 
belief. No one could recognize in this grand de- 
velopment of human progress the existence of 
his old home place, but for a few remaining 
natural landmarks which inform me that I am 
in the same old cemetery in which I was buried 
so long ago. But what am I to do now.^ Do 
people eat and drink as they did before they 
had died.-* 

Your physical organs are the same, you 
have simply been awakened from sleep, but you 
awake in another age, ever or ivorld; one in 
which there is no more sin, consequently no sor- 
row, no sickness, no pain, no death. Here all 
are perfectly honest, no one would, for any- 
thing, do less than his share of work, no one 
would do more than his share. No one would 
pay less than an honest day's work is worth, 
and no one would pay more." 

*'But now I am here, what am I to doi*" 

"Well, I will introduce you to my dear 

brother Affable. Observe, there are no titles 

here, no 'Mr.,' no 'Mrs.,' nor 'gentleman,' nor 

'lady.' 'Brother' a nd 'sister' are the only ti- 



225 

ties. Brother Affable will take charge of you, 
give you employment, and assist you in any and 
every way, as will all others you meet. Our 
dear sister Amiable will board and lodge you, 
and you will find everything in her house en- 
tirely at your service, as you will find everything 
else at your disposal just as if you owned it all. 
If you have use for anything you see, that no 
one is at that time using, take it; take care of 
it, and return it when done with it. No one 
will look for it. If they notice it is 
gone, they will simply feel that it is 
in safe hands, and will be properly cared 
for. If the last user never sees the article again 
he can easily get another when he needs it. 
We have all things common here in a peculiar 
ivay. I will now take you to our Brother Affa- 
ble, and he will set you to work on the old 
homestead where you lived before you died. 
My dear Brother Affable, I have brought 
you my old friend Jones, for that is what we 
called him when he lived on this same farm be- 
fore his natural death." 

"I am exceedingly glad, my dear brother, 
to receive you. Everything here is yours. 
Everyone will be greatly pleased to meet you; 
make yourself entirely at home, and to-mor- 
row you will find your employment here. 
Sister Amiable will be but too glad to 



226 



have you af her table. I will just say 
your living will cost you eight dollars per week, 
but you iviil have no occasion to complain, for 
every meal will make yon think it is a mar- 
riage feast. And now just walk over and see 
your dear sister's home, did you ever behold 
anything so grand? Here comes the loved ones. 
Let me introduce you to our sweet sister Ami- 
ble and her lovely household. Dear sister, this 
is our new brother, just taken from the grave. 
He must be furnished with comfortable apparel 
and made happy in all respects. This I know 
you will quickly do, and so now, goodby, and 
the saints be with you and keep you all." 

**Now my dear brother beloved, be kind 
enough to step into that room. There you 
will lodge and there you will find your 
evening dress. It will fit you, for it 

was made to order in expectation 
of your coming. Just robe yourself and be hap- 
py. My lovely girls will be greatly pleased to 
amuse you with music, to regale you with 
caresses and dancing, flowers, festivity and 
every joy possible. Do not fear to be friendly. 
There is none of the old world jealousy here. 
Sisters and brothers manifest for each other all 
the love they feel in perfect purity and holiness. 
But you will soon learn all our blissful ways 



22/ 

here, and you will find you are in a world worth 
living in." 

**Very glad to follow your kindly direction, 
my dear new sister. I will re-appear in time 
for tea; and now, be pleased to excuse me till 
then. Oh! rapturous delight! And this is Para- 
dise! How glorious, how unspeakably glorious! 
And I one of Earth's great sinners. This 
is not the end that I had been taught? 
as a sinner to expect. But, oh! glory; this is 
only the stepping stone to joys to come. Grand, 
glorious, i^dorious God; exalted King. Oh, 
that I coul(|l but praise and and adore thee, that 
I could but express my boundless joy in ade- 
quate terms; but language fails me. Oh! I 
shall die of very bliss. Oh! what a week of 
happiness I have passed, and now my sister will 
expect her eight dollars for keeping me. I 
have not seen a cent- since I came into this 
beautiful world. Hark! what is that.? Oh, it is 
a call. A call to get my week's wages. Yes, 
here am I." 

"Ah, and here is your week's pay.** 
"Why let me see. It is forty-eight dol- 
lars. Is there not some mistake.? Forty-eight 
dollars seems like big pay for twenty-four hours 
of pleasant recreation; for my work, four hours 
a day, has only been pleasant as a recreation. 
I never realized that it was work. But they tell 



228 



me it IS all that need be done. Everybody doe3 
his exact share, and no one shirks, no one takes 
less than his share of the products of the labor, 
no one takes more. All are exactly equal in all 
the virtues and values, all the pleasures and 
profits, all the joys and jubilees of this just and 
glorious millenium. But, there is one thing I 
do not yet understand. And that is, what is my 
true relation to this people.'* I have been dead, 
and have been resurrected. I find many more 
of the people here are the same. But many 
have been born into this world as I was into 
the old wicked world. Now, I observe that 
those marry and raise families, and seem to be 
the real owners of the property, if there are 
any real owners. But those who come here 
through the resurrection, do not seem to marry, 
and are only workmen or servants without any 
procreative powers or capacities whatever. 
Hence, they seem to mix in all social affairs with 
perfect freedom and without exciting the slight- 
est suspicion of the possibility of any wrong 
Deing thought or done. This makes social ex- 
istence here perfectly free and inexpressibly 
pleasing. But here comes my blessed instruc- 
tor, whom I have now learned is one of the 
glorified saints, or kings crowned with the 
laurels of perfect righteousness. He is of the 
Christ, and him do I adore. My beloved Lord, 



229 

how gladly do I greet you. I so much wish to 
ask you what is to become of me? What will 
my life be here, and when and how will it end?" 

''Well, my dearly beloved, you are afflicted 
with the same curiosity that excites every other 
one when he realizes his existence in this Para- 
dise, and finds himself so nearly as he was in his 
former life. He wishes to have those same 
questions answered, and I will answer them for 
you. You have been resurrected to judgment. 
Judgment is government. Here you will be re- 
warded according to the deeds done in the body," 

"So I always understood, but when I was in 
the body I was, oh! so wicked. And yet I have 
been brought up here, not to be punished, as I 
expected, for my sins done in the body; 
but to all appearances to enjoy a period 
of unlimited happiness. Now, please, when 
will I be arraigned, when will I be 
tried? Is this simply holding me under bond as 
it were, and treating me as innocent till I am 
found guilty? And then must I suffer the awful 
doom that I was taught to expect to be con- 
demned to suffer at the judgment?" 

^^You do not rightly understand the matter. 
The judgment is not a trial as by an old world 
coujt of justice, but it is a life in a world of 
righteousness. You are not judged here for 
anything you did, or did not do while you lived 



230 

on Earth, in Satan's kingdom before death. You 
paid the penalties of your follies there, with 
your suffering and your life. We have nothing^ 
to do in this kingdom with what was done in 
Satan's kingdom; no jurisdiction here over of- 
fenses committed there. If things were not 
done right in that world, it was the fault of Sa- 
tan and the people living there. We have noth- 
ing to do with it here. Our business is to see 
that this world is run right, and that we will do." 

''But, am I not to be judged according to 
the deeds done in the body.?" 

''Oh! yes, indeed, and that is the reason 
we are so careful to see that you do no improper 
deeds. " 

"But I mean, judged according to the deeds 
done when I lived in the body in the old world.?' 

"Are you not living in the body now.? You 
are judged according to the deeds you now do 
in the body. Did you think you would be judged 
in this world for what you did in another world.? 
Would you expect to be judged in one nation for 
what you did in another nation.? Why men do 
not do so foolish a thing as that. Certainly, 
God does not." 

You remarked a while ago that we do not 
sin here, so, we do not die here. Now, I infer 
from that that if we did sin in this world we 
would die the same as in the old world. 



231 

Not the same. In* the old world you had 
the promise of a resurrection, because there you 
sinned in spite of yourself. But here, if you sin, 
it will be in spite of all we can do to keep you 
from it. There, you were the victim of vicious 
circumstances; here, you are the subject of the 
most tender solicitude and the greatest possible 
care and love. Hence, there you had a promise of 
a resurrection to life in a righteous world, the 
world to come. You are now in that world and 
without excuse for sinning; and if you sin, that 
will be sin against the Holy Ghost. And that 
sin is not forgiven in any world." 

Oh! Now I recall a passage over which I 
thought a great deal while living in the 
world of woe. I wondered if I had not sinned 
away my day of grace. The thought that I 
had made me reckless and nulified all the good 
influences that were brought to bear against my 
sinful ways. I thought I was lost, and lost eter- 
nally, that there was no hope for me. I -had 
committed the unpardonable sin, and this 
thought so preyed upon my mind when soben 
that I soon turned to drink again. I thus went 
down, down, deeper and deeper Into degreda- 
tion and ruin, bringing my family into shame, 
and despair, and thus filling my soul with re- 
morse which I drowned again in the remorse- 
less cup. Oh! what a life. Oh! what a death. 



232 

And yet, to think of the goodness of God, that I 
am recalled to judgment, and that judgment may 
bring me the rich reward of eternal life if 
I sin not here against the Holy Ghost. But, 
oh! how strange now to think of that wonder- 
ful passage. 'Wherefore I say unto you. All 
manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven 
unto men; but the blasphemy against the HoLY 
Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And 
whosoever speaketh a word against the son of 
man^ it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever 
speaketh against the HOLY GHOST, it snail not 
be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the 
world to come.' But what am I to understand to 
be sinning against the Holy Ghost?" 

**By the Holy Ghost as expressed in Eng- 
lish, should be understood one of two different 
things; not either of them, for when one is meant 
the other is not. In some passages the mean- 
ing is holy angels; in others it is holy person. 
But since there was as yet no such being as the 
holy person, we may with reasonable ease tell 
when angels were meant as well as when person 
was meant. It is impossible to commit the unpar- 
donable sin against angels, since **all sins shall 
be fogiven unto the sons of men, and blas- 
phemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme. 
But he that shall blaspheme against the holy 
person, hath never forgiveness, but is in danger 



233 

of eternal annihilation." Now, from the state- 
ment that all manner of sin committed against 
the "son of man" is unconditionally forgiven, or 
allowed to pass as though it had not been com- 
mitted, no notice whatever being taken of it by 
him, and no other punishment for it than what it 
naturally brings itself; and since by the son of 
man is meant during the ministry of the son of 
man, and since the holy angels were 
associated with and assisted him during 
his ministry, it follows that any sin committed 
against him would be committed against them 
also. It is asserted that no account is taken of 
that sin, which must be true, since salvation 
under the Lord Christ and his gospel is abso- 
lutely free, not the lifting of one hair even be- 
ing required to secure it. It is offered to you 
free, all you are asked to do to get it is to be- 
lieve that Christ owns it; so you may feel sure 
you are getting it from the rightful owner; and 
that is only asked because you could not accept 
it from one you did not believe owned it. But 
now, if you have accepted, bring forth fruits 
that will show it, for we know a tree by its 
fruits; and if you say, I have accepted life, 
we shall believe you when we see you do 
the things of a live Christian. We can 
know a live Christian only by his works. 
But this leads us to understand that no sin 



234 

against the holy person can be committed until 
he shall appear, as no sin against Christ could 
be committed until after he began his min- 
istry. So, no sin against the holy person can 
be committed until such a person shall begin 
his ministry among men. It is plain, then, that 
this sin is against a person, a man, who shall 
preach as Christ preached, who shall lead his 
followers into all truth." 

''Will this occur at all in the gospel age.^" 
"It will, for in the end of the gospel ever 
the everlasting gospel must be preached by the 
holy person, and thus it will begin in the end of 
the gospel ever as the gospel was begun by 
Christ in the end of the Jewish ever. But, 
while Christ allowed all kinds of insults to be 
heaped upon him he plainly says this 
will not do, when the holy Comforter (person) 
shall preach the everlasting gospel, whether 
that be at its beginning in the gospel world, or 
in a more advanced stage in the world to come. 
But I may repeat the remark I have before 
made, that all of this is future. The future is 
known only to God, and can only be guessed at 
by us from what we can tell by the past, and 
from revelation. While we feel sure that this 
outline will be verified by the facts, we must 
await the fullness of time to see it done. I will 
say, however, that the everlasting gospel will be 



235 

simply the illucidation of the whole truth, un- 
raveling ail its mysteries and enabling the will- 
ing learner to know just what the situation 
requires him to know to enable him to avoid 
every undesirable or harmful position or circum- 
stance. Those who will not hear, will not be 
convinced, will not learn, must lose any advan- 
tage that a knowledge of the truth would secure 
to them. It will be simply a matter of life or 
death with them; life to know the truth, death 
not to know it. To those whose prejudice, 
vanity, self-interest or aught else keeps them 
from r&ceiving the truth, death will come sure 
and speedy. But to those who give attention 
to, and learn the truth, life is assured. The 
former shall go away into everlasting punish- 
ment, but the latter into everlasting life. How 
unwise that one should permit his prejudice 
thus to destroy him. But we know full well 
many will do so, for 'straight is the gate, and 
narrow is the way, that leadeth to life everlast- 
ing, and few there be that find it.' " 

'*I remember that on the day of Pente- 
cost, suddenly there came a sound from 
Heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, 
and it filled all the house where they 
were sitting. And there appeared unto them 
cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon 
each of them. And they were all filled with 



236 

the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other 
tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. This 
I have always thought taught that the holy 
Comforter came at that time, and I supposed 
that he had been present as a spirit during the 
entire gospel era. Jesus says, Lo, I am always 
with you even to the end. This must be in 
spirit only." 

* 'Jesus, however, is not the Comforter, and 
though he is present in spirit, the Comforter is 
not, but the Holy Spirit is, in the quality of 
the holy angels. That is, the wonder per- 
formed on the day of Pentecost was the work 
of angels, and was the fulfillment of the prophecy, 
*He will make His angels winds, and His min- 
isters a flaming fire.' The presence of the 
angels had the sound of wind, and appearance of 
cloven tongues of fire . But this was not the 
holy person, for as I have said, a 
person is a man, not a spirit. Angels 
are ministering spirits sent to instruct 
those who are heirs of salvation. The gospel 
age has been under the supervision of the holy 
angels. The Lord Jesus being a priest simply. 
He will be a king in the judgment, as he was a 
prophet in the world." 

*'I still desire to know what fate awaits me, 
for although you have shown me that my old 
world ideas were wholly at fault, yet you have 



237 

not informed me as to what is finally to become 
of me; and I shall be greatly pleased if you will 
enlighten me on that particular point." 

''Very well, I shall be most happy to do so; 
and will say that your position is this: You be- 
gan your existence in that wicked world, you 
are to finish it in this righteous world; and the 
end so far as you are concerned, will be just the 
same now as it would have been if you had 
never lived in sin, except your suffering 
and death in which you were involved. 
That is, you will now finish your animal exist- 
ence in this world, and will be changed into an 
angel of God in the twinkling of an eye, as all 
are here. There is no death here, every one 
lives out his natural life and is then translated to 
Heaven. Jesus said. Two shall be grinding at a 
mill, one shall be taken and the other left; that 
s, the time for the translation of one has come, 
and he is taken to Heaven. The time for the 
other has not yet come, so he waits till it does 
come, and then he is taken to Heaven also. 
Such will be your fate," 

"Oh, I am then to reach Heaven at last 
when I have earned the right to go there by liv- 
ng rightly in this judgment world.^" 

Most assuredly, when by good works you 
have rendered yourself invulnerable to sin and 
have attained to perfection in righteousness. 



238 



then you will be permitted to enter Heaven 
with no fear of your ever going out of it. So 
may it be. Amen and amen. 

And I saw a new Heaven and a new 
Earth: for the first Heaven and the first Earth 
were passed away; and there was no more 
sea (waste.) ^' ^- ^" '"" ^ And 

I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, 
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and 
He will dwell with them, and they shall be His 
people, and God Himself shall be with them and 
be their God. And God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no 
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain: for the former 
things are passed away. 

And there were great voices in Heaven, 
saying. The kingdoms of this world are become 
the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and 
he shall reign forever and ever. 

And I heard as it were the voice of a great 
multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and 
as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, 
Allelulia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! 



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OR 

SCIENCE. SENSE AND SCRIPTURE HARMONIZED, 



A new book. 

The most wonderful book ever written. 

This book is not designed to bean exhaust- 
ive presentation of the subjects treated, but is 
intended to give the skeleton, as it were, of a 
line of thought in regard to Bible teaching, new, 
and different from any before developed. Its 
purpose is to excite investigation, to exalt man's 
views of God and His' works, '^by' presenting an 
expose of the scripture in beautiful harmony 
with what man would naturally expect the great 
and good God to be and to do. 

You can't afford^ to be without it. 
Sells for 50 Gents only. 
Every page Is wofth/iflS ifrlce. 



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